Wednesday, August 8, 2018
Sunday, August 20, 2017
Opposition Activist Gevorg Safarian Jailed For 2 Years
YEREVAN (RFE/RL) — A court in Yerevan on Monday sentenced an opposition activist to two years in prison on what he considers trumped-up charges of assaulting a police officer during an anti-government protest staged a year ago.
Gevorg Safarian was among dozens of members of the opposition New Armenia Public Salvation Front who scuffled with riot police as they tried to celebrate the New Year in Yerevan’s Liberty Square early on January 1, 2016. Safarian was arrested and accused of assaulting one of the officers. He went on trial a few months later.
Reading out the verdict, the presiding judge, Mnatsakan Martirosian, said law-enforcement authorities have proved that Safarian punched and knocked down the policeman, Gegham Khachatrian, during the incident. Martirosian provoked angry chants from the defendant’s relatives and supporters present in the courtroom.
“This is what was expected to happen,” Safarian told reporters, reacting to the ruling.
In his concluding remarks at the trial made earlier in the day, the oppositionist again strongly denied the charges brought against him, saying that it was Khachatrian who assaulted him and other protesters. He insisted that the criminal case based on police testimony was “fabricated” in response to his political activities.
“Our judicial system has been reduced to an absurd level,” charged Safarian. “They can jail anyone they want.”
His lawyer, Tigran Hayrapetian, also condemned the verdict and said he will appeal against it. “The court executed a [government] order, rather than delivered a verdict,” he said. “There is no jurisprudence here.”
In a January 2016 statement, Human Rights Watch (HRW) denounced Safarian’s pre-trial arrest as “wholly unjustified.” The New York-based watchdog said he is prosecuted for his political views and should therefore be released from custody.
Opposition Activist Imprisoned in Armenia After Protest
On Monday a court in Armenia sentenced opposition activist, Gevorg Safaryan, to two years in prison. The charges were linked to a scuffle with police during a small New Year’s Eve demonstration one year ago, an incident caught on video that seems to show police harassing and interfering with demonstrators leading an initially calm atmosphere to shift to one of violence.
On Monday, January 17, 2017, an Armenian court convicted and sentenced opposition activist Gevorg Safaryan to two years in prison on charges linked to a scuffle with police during a New Year’s Eve protest one year ago.
© PhotolubeWhile Safaryan will be imprisoned, no police have been held to account for their role. Once again, Armenian authorities appear quick to punish and silence activists, while refusing to acknowledge any negative, and potentially unlawful, role police may play in disrupting peaceful protests.
Police arrested Safaryan and several others dressed in costume to mark New Year’s Eve in central Yerevan’s Freedom Square with a public event. Organizers had notified city officials about their plans in advance, as required by law. Safaryan is a well-known member of the opposition New Armenia Public Movement and frequent organizer of protests in recent years, much to the ire of the authorities. Yerevan deployed a substantial police presence to the New Year’s Eve event.
The gathering wasn’t large, but as participants tried to place a small New Year’s tree in the square, police quickly stopped them. Safaryan and others pressed on with the event, bringing a man dressed like a holiday tree into the group. When police again intervened, a scuffle broke out. Although the others arrested were released, police charged Safaryan with using force against police, and he has been in custody for more than a year, awaiting trial. Human Rights Watch criticized the lack of reasonable grounds for the pretrial detention.
Safaryan strongly denies the charges and sees his conviction as an attempt to stifle his criticism of the government. The detention – and now conviction – will be quite effective in keeping Safaryan out of public life.
Meanwhile, a criminal investigation into police actions produced no results, and officials closed it. Activists are making their final appeal this month in court against the decision.
It seems that authorities are solidifying an unfortunate tradition of failing to hold to account police who wrongfully interfere with freedom of assembly. They shouldn’t. Traditions are best left for New Year’s Eve and other celebrations. Investigations should mean accountability for those responsible, not just for activists.
Armenia: Opposition Activist Jailed
(Berlin) – Armenian authorities should release a political activist who was arrested during a public gathering on January 1, 2016, and placed in pretrial detention, pending an impartial investigation into the charges against him, Human Rights Watch said today. The authorities should also review police conduct at the gathering and possible police interference with the rights to freedom of thought, expression, and assembly.
Police arrested Gevorg Safaryan at Yerevan’s Freedom Square at about 1 a.m. on New Year’s Day, amid a scuffle during a public event organized by members of the New Armenia Movement, a political opposition group. The authorities charged Safaryan with using violence against the police, and on January 3, a court granted a police investigator’s request to hold Safaryan in pretrial custody for two months.
“Given the minor nature of the incident, two months of pretrial custody is wholly unjustified,” said Giorgi Gogia, South Caucasus director at Human Rights Watch. “Pretrial detention should be a last resort, not the general rule, and only in cases where there is a well-founded fear that the person will evade justice or hinder the investigation.”
In a January 5 letter to Armenia’s prosecutor general, Human Rights Watch expressed concern about the charges against and pretrial detention of Safaryan and called for his release pending an investigation.
Safaryan’s lawyer told Human Rights Watch that the event organizers had notified the Yerevan city authorities in advance about their plans to hold a New Year’s celebration on Freedom Square.
Video footage of the incident available on YouTube shows a major police presence in the square as several dozen participants gathered on New Year’s Eve and in the early hours of January 1. When participants, dressed in costume for the New Year, attempted to bring a small New Year’s tree into the square, police told them they were not allowed to bring the tree there and confiscated it. When Safaryan and several others returned with a man wearing a tree costume, a scuffle broke out between police and some of the participants, and police detained Safaryan and several others.
Police released other participants the same day but charged Safaryan with using force against a representative of an authority under Criminal Code article 316.1, which carries a penalty of up to five years in prison. Safaryan was transferred to Yerevan’s Nubarashen pretrial facility on January 3, after the court approved pretrial detention.
In reviewing police conduct at the event, the authorities should examine the instructions given to the police, Human Rights Watch said. The review should include instructions about the size of the law enforcement presence at the event, its terms of engagement, and any restrictions or conditions placed on the event’s participants, including regarding decorations and costumes.
Safaryan has been under investigation since April 2015 on mass disturbance charges, and in May was releasedfrom pretrial custody on his own recognizance. The court used the existing investigation to justify the decision to send him to pretrial custody, without looking into the substance of the new charges.
Holding Safaryan for two months is completely disproportionate given the absence of evidence that he poses a genuine risk to the investigation, Human Rights Watch said.
Article 9(3) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), to which Armenia is a party, states that, “It shall not be the general rule that persons awaiting trial shall be detained in custody.” The United Nations Human Rights Committee, which provides authoritative interpretation of the covenant, has determined that bail should be granted except in cases in which there is a likelihood that the accused would abscond, destroy evidence, or influence witnesses.
“In the absence of any compelling reason for keeping Safaryan behind bars, it’s hard to avoid concluding that the authorities are targeting – and jailing – him to interfere with his peaceful political activism,” Gogia said.
Friday, August 18, 2017
Wednesday, August 16, 2017
Human Rights Watch Condemns Beating of Veteran, Calls on Authorities for Accountabilit
(Left) Smbat Hakobian in the RFE/RL studio in Yerevan, Armenia on December 12, 2014. (Right) Smbat Hakobian after being beaten after a protest in Yerevan, Armenia on September 21, 2015 (Source: RFE/RL; Anonymous)
YEREVAN (Arminfo)—Human Rights Watch has condemned the severe beating of Artsakh war veteran Smbat Hakobyan, who was attacked in Yerevan on September 21 after participating in an anti-government protest.
“A member of an independent political group critical of the Armenian government was savagely beaten after a protest in Yerevan, the capital, on September 21, 2015,” Human Rights Watch said today. “The authorities should immediately investigate the beating of Smbat Hakobian, a member of the Alliance of Freedom Fighters, and bring those responsible to account.”
“No peaceful protester should have to fear a brutal beating just for expressing their views,” said Rachel Denber, deputy Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The effectiveness of the investigation into the vicious assault on Smbat Hakobian will be a true test of how seriously the Armenian government takes its commitment to free expression and peaceful assembly.”
Human Rights Watch recalled that Armenia is a party to the European Convention on Human Rights and has clear obligations under the convention not only to respect the right to peaceful assembly, but also to ensure the security of those exercising that right and protect them from unlawful interference by others.
Armenia also has obligations to carry out effective investigations into attacks on bodily integrity and personal security and to ensure that police use of force is in compliance with international standards. Those standards limit use of force to situations in which it is absolutely necessary to respond to physical threats to the police or others and then is strictly proportionate and nondiscriminatory.
“People in Armenia shouldn’t be risking serious injury to take part in a peaceful protest,” Denber said. “The government needs to make clear that anyone who interferes with peaceful protesters will be held accountable to the full extent of the law.”
On September 21 Smbat Hakobyan, an Artsakh war veteran, was severely beaten in the center of Yerevan. A few minutes prior to the incident, Hakobyan, together with a number of civic activists, participated in a protest in front of the office of the ruling Republican Party of Armenia (RPA), calling for a change in government.
Hakobyan was hospitalized with numerous injuries. He is currently in an intensive care unit and his condition is moderately grave. The beaten veteran was unable to tell investigators the details of the incident.
The activists who helped him say that when their protest was over and the veteran was walking along Abovyan Street, 5-6 people in civilian clothing approached him, showed him what appeared to be an identity document, forced him to enter a fenced area on Abovyan Street, and then proceeded to severely beat him.
The activists say they did not manage to see what car the assailants traveled in. They said that while Hakobyan was being beaten, not a single policeman responded to their calls for help.
To draw attention to the situation, the activists pushed garbage cans into Abovyan Street, disrupting traffic. Only then did police arrive at the scene, the activists say. It is widely rumored that the son-in-law of Ruben Hayrapetyan, the president of the Football Federation of Armenia, is complicit in the beating.
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