Police officers are guided by their feelings rather than law
18:01, June 30, 2017 | News, Own news
The investigating body qualified as abuse of power the plain-clothes police officers’ action of entering journalist Arpi Makhsudyan’s apartment and attempt to search it.
Under the criminal proceedings initiated by the RA Special Investigation Service under Article 309(2) of the Criminal Code, the motion of Arpi Makhsudyan’s representative Ani Chatinyan, lawyer at HCA Vanadzor, was granted and Arpi Makhsudyan was declared victim.
Before, the journalist was involved as a witness under the criminal proceedings initiated some days after the crime report was submitted. She was questioned in that status, whereas Makhsudyans’ family should have been declared victim once the criminal proceedings were initiated.
Note that on May 11, 2017, at 7:30 am the plain-clothes police officers entered the journalist’s apartment and said that they had some information that an offender was hiding there. When A. Makhsudyan asked them whether they had a sanction to search the apartment, they answered that they had none and then required her to leave the apartment. Then the police officers started to behave aggressively and threatened to take her father-in-law to the police station.
The police officers’ treatment changed only after A. Makhsudyan tried to call a lawyer. She also refused to answer the police officers’ questions and then they left by saying swear words and terrifying her family members.
A. Makhsudyan told us that the Police refuted that the police officers entered her apartment for search and explained their visit by seeking a wanted person.
The relevant legislation states that a compulsory condition for searching a person’s apartment is a court ruling. And in this case there was no such ruling. And we can only make assumptions on how they should find the wanted person without searching the apartment; the police officers tried to guess whether he was there from the behavior of the people who lived there or supposed to find him in the living-room.
The aggrieved party expects that the initiated criminal proceedings will make clear the real aim and legal justification of the police officers’ visit to the Makhsudyans’ apartment.
A. Makhsudyan expects that the investigation will confirm that the police officers abused their powers but is sure that they will not be punished as in Armenia no police officer has ever been held responsible for abusing his powers and they will not allow any such precedent.
A. Chatinyan, lawyer at HCA Vanadzor, adds: “The atmosphere of impunity in Armenia and our experience make it possible for us to conclude that the actions taken on crime reports usually end in decisions on suspending criminal proceedings.”