Epress.am News from Armenia
Armenian police used excessive force against demonstrators on Sunday during a march through the center of Yerevan in honor of Artur Sargsyan, a supporter of the Sasna Tsrer (Daredevils of Sasun) opposition armed group who died in hospital on Thursday, ten days after his release from prison following a nearly month-long hunger strike.
In July 2016, Sargsyan, who came to be known as the “Food Bringer,” drove through a police cordon around a Yerevan police station occupied by Sasna Tsrer to deliver food to the gunmen. He was subsequently arrested and accused of aiding the armed group.
According to a video released on Monday by the Armenian Helsinki Association for Human Rights, HAHR lawyer Arayik Papikyan has also suffered from police actions.
“[Police officers] grossly violated my right to free movement; during the scuffle, they blocked the way I could have used to leave the area. I asked them multiple times to get out of my way, but they never did, and I suffered physical pain in the scuffle as a result,” Papikyan said in the video.
The lawyer added that law enforcement authorities should consider the video message a crime report, and demanded that two police officers in particular, junior sergeant Khachatryan and corporal Martirosyan, be subjected to criminal responsibility.
Details in the video:
After Artur Sargsyan’s death, thousands of demonstrators have been holding daily marches in different parts of downtown Yerevan. On Sunday, the marchers walked from the Mashtots Ave. to the city’s central Republic Square where they attempted to stage a sit-in protest. The protesters, however, were soon dispersed by police, after which they relocated to the Freedom Square and began an around-the-clock sit-in there.