Epress.am News from Armenia
Activists Anton Ivchenko and Hayk Sargsyan, who were detained around 10 PM on Friday during the protest action in Yerevan against the latest rise in electricity tariff, were released after spending two hours in custody. Prior to the release, representatives of the office of the RA Human Rights Defender visited the detainees. Ivchenko and Sargsyan refused to testify or sign any documents at the police station.
Materials were being prepared by Police, authorities said, and it would be decided later whether to initiate a criminal case against the activists under Article 186 of the RA Criminal Code (intentional destruction or damage to property).
While in custody, Ivchenko had managed to contact his friends and inform them that he and Sargsyan were only being questioned about the tires brought to the protest action by some of the members of the anarchist bloc. The police, allegedly, had received a complaint that some property had been damaged as a result of tire fires. However, as Epress.am correspondents informed from the Square, Ivchenko and Sargsyan were nowhere near the demonstrators who had brought tires.
Note, this was not the only case of protest participants being pursued. Our correspondent witnessed late on June 19 how four plainclothes men chased artist Artur Petrosyan who was leaving the territory of the Freedom Square. When one of the men approached the artist, several civilians ran to them and demanded the man introduce himself, which, however, the latter did not do. The plainclothes man also did not wish to clarify whether he was a police officer; instead, he joined his three fellows and left the scene.
In yet another incident, “Union of Informed Citizens” NGO coordinator Daniel Ioannisyan and his wife were approached by several law enforcement officers when they were walking towards their car. The police, Ioannisyan said, demanded he and his wife follow them to the station. When asked to present basis of such demands, the officers said the car “was wanted.”
Ioannisyan phoned human rights defender Artur Sakunts and opposition MP Nikol Pashinyan in the presence of police officers and told them about the incident. Sakunts soon arrived at the scene, after which the officers said they had “mixed up the car’s registration plates,” and walked away.