{"id":243530,"date":"2013-11-13T23:00:10","date_gmt":"2013-11-13T19:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.epress.am\/?p=243530"},"modified":"2013-11-13T23:01:35","modified_gmt":"2013-11-13T19:01:35","slug":"justice-minister-avoids-responding-to-allegations-of-police-violence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/2013\/11\/13\/justice-minister-avoids-responding-to-allegations-of-police-violence.html","title":{"rendered":"Justice Minister Avoids Responding to Allegations of Police Violence"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n\t<span style=\"line-height: 1.6em;\">Asked by reporters today whether Shant Harutyunyan was subjected to violence, RA Minister of Justice Hrayr Tovmasyan said he visited Harutyunyan and others who were detained in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.epress.am\/en\/2013\/11\/05\/clashes-in-central-yerevan-dozens-detained.html\"><span style=\"color:#000080;\"><strong>clashes with police<\/strong><\/span><\/a> earlier this month.<\/span>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\tOne of the reporters remarked that MP Nikol Pashinyan suspects that Harutyunyan was not only beaten, but also that the violence against him continues.&nbsp;\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t&quot;The ancient Greeks used to say: I doubt everything. If someone is [prone to being] suspicious, he can doubt. We have clear procedures. There is a mechanism for appeal [&hellip;] It&#39;s not like I control the detention centers. According to Pashinyan&#39;s statement, all that took place not in the penitentiary but in the detention center,&quot; said the minister.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\tAccording to him, anyone taken to a penitentiary undergoes a medical examination and records are drawn up. Any trace of violence, even a scratch is recorded. Asked by Epress.am where can one obtain the results of Shant Harutyunyan&#39;s medical examination, the justice minister didn&#39;t respond, saying he promised to answer four questions, yet he&#39;s answered seven already and will not take anymore questions.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\tRecall, on Nov. 6, Pashinyan went to the Yerevan detention center and met with anti-government demonstrators who were arrested after clashes with riot police on Nov. 5 in central Yerevan. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.epress.am\/en\/2013\/11\/07\/opposition-activist-claims-armenian-police-chief-personally-beat-him.html\"><span style=\"color:#000080;\"><strong>Harutyunyan told the opposition MP<\/strong><\/span><\/a> that the police chief and deputy police chief personally used violence against him.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\tPashinyan contacted Chief of Special Investigative Service (SIS) Vahram Shahinyan, asking the SIS to launch an investigation into the allegations.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t<span style=\"line-height: 1.6em;\">Head of the Helsinki Citizens&#39; Assembly Vanadzor office Artur Sakunts, who also paid a visit to Shant Harutyunyan, in an interview with <a href=\"http:\/\/www.azatutyun.am\/media\/video\/videos\/25166230.html\"><span style=\"color:#000080;\"><strong>RFE\/RL&#39;s Armenian service<\/strong><\/span><\/a>, said there were traces of violence on Harutyunyan&#39;s hands and there is no doubt that the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.azatutyun.am\/content\/article\/25160310.html\"><span style=\"color:#000080;\"><strong>veteran political activist<\/strong><\/span><\/a> was subjected to violence while in police custody.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Asked by reporters today whether Shant Harutyunyan was subjected to violence, RA Minister of Justice Hrayr Tovmasyan said he visited Harutyunyan and&#8230;<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":243442,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tstyn_error":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[15238,18519,51376],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243530"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243530"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243530\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}