Court found unlawful police actions of using physical force against ‘Armenian Women’s Front’ member S. Simonyan
13:05, April 7, 2017 | News, Own news
On April 6, 2017, the RA Administrative Court, presided by judge K. Zarikyan, announced the judicial act resulting form the examination of the claim of RA Police against ‘Armenian Women’s Front’ member Susanna Simonyan taken by force to police station from the assembly of June 22, 2016 during the examination of the preliminary investigation body’s motion on choosing detention as preventive measure against Zh. Sefilyan.
By granting the RA Police claim, the Court ruled to impose on S. Simonyan administrative sanctions in form of a fine of 30.000 AMD. By its position expressed in the ruling, the Court considered the action of spitting publicly on a police officer an insult punishable by administrative sanctions under the Code of Administrative Offenses.
The court also granted partially S. Simonyan’s and her representative’s counter-claim by declaring unlawful the police actions of using physical force and rejected the counter-claim in the part of declaring unlawful the police actions of arresting her, failure of police officers to introduce themselves during arrest, insulting her and taking video without her consent.
In this context, the Court emphasizes that such actions first of all were subject to criminal and legal assessment and might be checked under administrative judicial procedure as administration only in the absence of any elements of crime. In terms of insulting S. Simonyan, the Court found that there was no supporting evidence that would dispel all the doubts of the Court. And as for use of physical force, the Court considered established the fact that the police officers used physical force against the plaintiff without any demand or warning and if there is no demand, there is no need to use physical force.