“The incident caused me to suffer not only physical, but also psychological damage”: ‘Armenian Women’s Front’ member Susanna Simonyan, was also questioned
12:07, March 17, 2017 | News, Own news
On March 14 and 16, 2017, the RA Administrative Court, presided by judge K. Zarikyan, resumed examination of the RA Police claim against ‘Armenian Women’s Front’ member Susanna Simonyan, who was taken to the police station by force from the assembly of June 22, 2016 during the examination of the preliminary investigation body’s motion on choosing detention as preventive measure against J. Sefilyan, on imposing on her administrative sanctions under Article 172.3 of the RA Code of Administrative Offences and Susanna Simonyan’s counter-claim on declaring the RA Police actions unlawful.
The court hearing was attended by RA Police representative Ruben Yepiskoposyan, Senior Legal Adviser at Kanaker-Zeytun Division of RA Police Yerevan Department, and Susanna Simonyan and her representative Tatevik Siradeghyan, lawyer at Yerevan Office of HCA Vanadzor.
The Court questioned assembly participants Geghetsik Tonoyan, Naira Badalyan and Anahit Khachatryan, involved in the case as witnesses by the defendant and counter-plaintiff’s motion.
They said that once S. Simonyan lay down in front of the police car, some police officers came up to her and made her get to her feet and then S. Simonyan got up at once and remained in the area of the court. According to the witness statements, the red-beret police officers grabbed S. Simonyan by her arms and took her to the police car without saying a word; at that time, S. Simonyan screamed widely.
And witness A. Khachatryan said that she learnt from Anush Karapetyan taken to the police car together with S. Simonyan about the offensive remarks addressed by the police officers to them and then mentioned the health problems S. Simonyan developed after that incident. In her testimony, N. Badalyan also referred to such health problems.
T. Siradeghyan motioned to question also S. Simonyan as witness under the case and the parties did not object to it.
S. Simonyan described the incidents before her arrest and mentioned the physical pain caused by a police officer’s actions while arresting her, after which she received lengthy treatment and still had pains in her right shoulder.
According to the testimony, while the police officers at the police station treated her well, they did not record her report of the incident. On the following day, a crime report was submitted to Kentron Division of RA Police Yerevan City Department and sent to the RA SIS, but initiation of criminal proceedings was rejected.
S. Simonyan added that the incident caused her to suffer not only physical, but also psychological damage.
S. Simonyan’s representative also presented to the Court photos taken after the incident showing the injuries she received.
The court hearing was postponed, so that a copy of the RA Special Investigative Service decree on rejecting initiation of criminal proceedings was submitted to the Court.
At the court hearing of March 16, the parties also gave final speeches and submitted to the Court evidence essential for the solution of the case and then the Court set the date for announcing the judgment.
Later, we will provide more details on the court hearing.