Epress.am News from Armenia
Shahen Harutyunyan, the teenage son of Armenian oppositionist and political prisoner Shant Harutyunyan, was kidnapped from Gyumri Saturday morning “by a group of animals in police uniform,” according to a Facebook post by Levon Barseghyan, the head of the Gyumri-based Asparez Journalists' Club and a member of Gyumri's Council of Elders.
“I talked to Shahen on the phone; he said he had been kidnapped not far from Gyumri's central square and was being taken away in an unknown direction,” Barseghyan wrote. He later updated that Harutyunyan was being taken to Yerevan through Spitak and that several people, including himself, have already filed a kidnapping report with Gyumri's police.
Davit Sanasaryan, a member of the opposition Heritage party, wrote for his part that the young Harutyunyan had been kidnapped and was being held in the personal car of Shirak's police chief as he wanted to tell Pope Francis – who is currently visiting Gyumri as part of his three-day trip to Armenia – that there are about two dozen political prisoners in the first country to adopt Christianity.
“This cynical behaviour is a gross violation of human rights – a person apprehended while walking on the street… Freedom to Shahen, freedom to all political prisoners,” Sanasaryan's post reads.
In a comment for A1plus.am, the press service of the police has denied the kidnapping reports, claiming that Shahen Harutyunyan “was removed from the area for a search because officers had noticed strange items on him.”
Note, it's not the first time the young Harutyunyan tries to take the opportunity of the international spotlight on Armenia to raise the issue of the country's political prisoners. In June 2015, he invaded the pitch during a Euro 2016 qualifier match between Armenia and Portugal wearing a t-shirt with his father’s image on it, and holding a poster that read “Freedom to Shant Harutyunyan and all political prisoners of Armenia.”
Photo from Davit Sanasaryan's Facebook page