Epress.am News from Armenia
Civilian-clothed people who detain demonstrators are police officers, and the National Police carries full responsible for their actions, head of the police press service Ashot Aharonyan wrote on his Facebook page on Friday.
According to Article 12 of the RA Law On Police, however, when ensuring public order, police officers must be in a uniform, with ID insignia attached to a clearly visible part.
Epress.am reached out to the police press service, seeking a law provision citation which would allow people in plain clothes or without insignia to detain citizens.
“Have you read the post? Consider it an official statement,” police spokesperson Zarzand Gabrielyan told us.
Lawyer Harutyun Baghdasaryan, meanwhile, confirmed in a phone conversation with our correspondent that the law requires that the identity of a policemen be known.
“The so-called plainclothes police officers are literally kidnapping the people. Insignia is obligatory when carrying out a detention. Good for the police to carry the responsibility for these people, but I need to know who I’m being detained by,” the lawyer argued.
Note, police officers with no insignia have today been spotted detaining people in various parts of Yerevan.
