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On October 20, 2011 members of the “Army in Reality” Public Initiative organized a protest at the RA Government Building together with the parents of the soldiers deceased while serving in the army. The protest was peaceful until the moment when the RA Chief of Police came out of the RA Government Building and tried to disrupt the demonstration by pushing the protestors and damaging the poster.

There was an outcry from the other protestors showing their disapproval of the violence displayed by the chief of police. In response to the uttered remarks, Chief of Police, Alik Sargsyan, gave a directive to isolate the protestor, Vardges Gaspari. About 15-20 minutes after Alik Sargsyan’s departure, at approximately 12:15, a group of policemen “invited” V. Gaspari to the police station, but he refused; demanding the police present legal grounds. The police began pushing the citizens who had surrounded V. Gaspari, and forcibly put him into the police car to be transferred to the Kentron Police Department. After keeping him under custody for at least three hours they transferred him to the Investigative Department of the Kentron Police Department where they issued a memo of his arrest at approximately 8:00 p.m.

V. Gaspari is a suspect and is charged with the 1st part of Article 258 (hooliganism) and the 1st part of Article 316 (action against a representative of the authorities) of the RA Criminal Code.

We should note that the stories and video materials of the witnesses prove that V. Gaspari did not violate the public order, did not treat the public disrespectfully, did not use violence against the life or health of a representative of the authorities or an intimate relative and did not threaten to do so. On the contrary, The RA Public Television, is being used by the authorities again, distorts the reality, disseminates disinformation and launches a negative campaign against civil society organizations. Once again, the RA authorities are trying to silence activists who are speaking out against problems, instead of adequately responding to the negative situations in the army, eliminating army crimes, and taking steps towards revealing those guilty of crimes and in due course punishing them.

We condemn the unleashed campaign of the authorities against civil society institutions and the exploitation of the public media resource – television and consider it a gross infringement on our freedoms and rights of associations, assemblies, and expression, guaranteed by thelaws and the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia, as well as the international conventions. We want to remind the authorities and particularly the RA Chief of Police, Alik Sargsyan, that obstructing our indicated human rights is criminally punishable based on the following articles of the RA Criminal Code:

Article 143: Infringement of citizens’ equality,
Article 161: Obstruction of the right to form associations (public or trade unions) or political parties or with their activity,
Article 163: Obstruction of holding assemblies and participating in them

“Army in Reality” Initiative Group