Epress.am News from Armenia
The biggest issue in the Armenian Police is torture, said the Civil Society Institute NGO expert Artak Kirakosyan at the National Assembly today. Epress.am journalist reported from the National Assembly, that the discussion about police finances, transparency, and parlimentary oversight was slightly diverted away from the latter topics and instead focused on torture and the necessity of legal reforms.
“The Police Chief speaks about this very topic, but I don’t know why they get upset when we speak about it,” remarked Kirakosyan during his speech. According to the speaker, there is not enough finances to implement monitoring of detention centers, and that the job is solely on the shoulders of the Ombudsman’s office.
According to Kirakosyan, another issue is that the Police’s created disciplinary commission is in fact not functioning, because it can only examine aggressive behavior by police during protests and rallies, and only in those cases when the police department has begun an employee investigation.
“This provision strictly limits the commission’s competence and it turns into a structure that protects police officers' rights. Our organization was part of that commission, but after understanding the situation, we left,” said Kirakosyan.
He stressed that only 1-2 cases related to torture have been taken to court, with verdicts against police. The NGO representative claims that by giving the torturers amnesty, Armenia violated its signed international agreements.
“It is noteworthy, that a police officer who admitted his guilt was left unpunished after expressing regret and promising to leave the police system.” said Kirakosyan.
Other than the topic of torture, the expert turned to the police’s ‘02’ TV program, noting that it often violates the presumption of innocence.
Despite Armenia’s human rights defense organizations continually raising the issue of torture in the police system, the session's participant OSCE expert Thorsten Stodieck did not raise a similar issue. During his speech he only stressed the necessity of legal reforms.
When Epress.am asked him about the issue of torture, he replied saying that he does not have any statistical data, to know if there has been torture by the police. “If such things actually do happen, it is possible to solve the issue through engaging civil society monitoring mechanisms,” said Stodieck.
The OSCE representative’s assessment is that the grant money given to the Police have been used properly and that they are satisfied with the implemented reforms.
Photograph of Police officer forcefully taking into custody a protester during the November 5, 2013 rally organized by political prisoner Shant Harutyunyan