Human rights activists: “The NSS text should contain guarantees; instead, we can see an ultimatum approach”
18:00, July 27, 2016 | News, Other news
The call-leaflet of the National Security Service addressed to ‘Sasna Tsrer’ group members is unclear; it should contain clear-cut guarantees.
This opinion was expressed by human rights activist Avetik Ishkhanyan, Chairman of Helsinki Committee of Armenia.
Yesterday, the NSS made available to ‘Sasna Tsrer’ group members at the Patrol and Guard Service Regiment premises a call-leaflet reminding them that the group had committed the crimes below: taking hostages (Article 218 of the RA Criminal Code), seizure of buildings, transport and communication means (Article 219 of the RA Criminal Code), illegal procurement, transportation or carrying of firearm (Article 235 of the RA Criminal Code). The call-leaflet contained a warning that the persons responsible for the crimes above faced an imprisonment of up to 15 years.
“The type and severity of the sentence inevitable for the criminal acts already committed will be significantly influenced by the nature of the actions committed by each of the armed group members and the gravity of their consequences. At the same time, under the grounds and conditions prescribed by the RA law:
– the person who has withdrawn his/her demands and voluntarily releases the hostage shall be released from criminal liability unless his/her actions contain any other element of crime;
– the person who has withdrawn his/her demands and voluntarily leaves the seized area shall be released from criminal liability, unless his/her actions contain any other element of crime;
– the person who has voluntarily handed over the illegal firearms shall be released from criminal liability, unless his/her actions contain any other element of crime”, the NSS leaflet reads. At the same time, they once again urged the armed group members to be reasonable and considering the circumstances above, voluntarily lay down the arms and surrender to the authorities. According to Avetik Ishkhanyan, this leaflet-demand by the NSS is a half step forward, but not a guarantee yet.
“I would like that call to be very clear-cut, and the clarity might be as follows: guarantee that nobody will be punished for seizing the premises of the Patrol and Guard Service Regiment and even for burning the car yesterday and all the other actions, except for the murder of the police officer. And as for that incident, in impartial investigation should be carried out”, Ishkhanyan said in his interview to ‘Medialab’. And according to him, the impartiality of the investigation should be guaranteed and the process should be transparent.
“There is no clarity here; they say, unless no other actions were committed… And whatever they say is very easy to put under other cases in the future. In other words, there is no clarity. It should be stated more clearly that nobody should be held liable for those actions. And the murder of the police officer should be revealed only through an impartial investigation”, he said.
Furthermore, impartial guarantees for the investigation into the murder of the police officer should be provided as to the investigative group to be set up; such group might also include local and international non-governmental experts.
“Provision of such guarantees would result in a serious step, which I have proposed long before. This step means that along with the impartial investigation into the police officer’s murder, the outcome of the solution might be amnesty”, he added.
Human rights activist Artur Sakunts, Chairman of Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly-Vanadzor, considers this call by the NSS to be strange at first sight, which, according to him, is not consistent with the current situation. He notes that while such call is fully in line with the legal framework, it should not be artificially cut off the current situation.
“If viewed as an individual document and as a legal document, of course, it is fully substantiated. But the matter is that now we have a situation in Armenia, in which it appears impossible not to see any links between this individual legal document and the other legal and political processes”, Artur Sakunts said in his interview to ‘Medialab’.
Particularly, according to him, at this stage, we witness the practice of criminal prosecution against citizens by the law enforcement officers. People suffer groundless prosecution in a consistent way; there are even cases of beating and torturing of activists at the hands of police officers, and this mitigated mode of legal methods by the NSS seems strange in this context.
“This gives rise to some distrust since we face here a differentiated approach. In some cases, obvious pressure is exerted on activists and persons and in other cases quite a loyal approach is adopted going as far as to proposing release from criminal liability”, he says
According to the human rights activist, while under the current circumstances, this text of the NSS should have contained guarantees, we can see only an ultimatum approach in the text. Sakunts also reminds that upon releasing hostages of their own free will, the ‘Sasna Tsrer’ group members obviously suffer pressure at the hands of the law enforcement agencies.
There is no guarantee that the promises will not be broken in this case either.
“For over 2 days upon the release of the hostages, the authorities have deprived the area of the patrol and guard service regiment of electricity and the group members of food and means of communication. In other words, this very behavior in itself casts doubt on the trust in this new proposal”, he says.
And as a step to increase the trust, he suggests, for instance, changing detention as a preventive measure against Zhirayr Sefilyan.