No criminal proceedings initiated on obstructing attorneys’ activities; the decision is based on clarifications of police officers
12:18, September 20, 2016 | News, Own news | Sasna Tsrer
HCA Vanadzor has already reported that after the seizure of the RA Police patrol and guard service by ‘Sasna Tsrer’ group, on July 17, 2016, in the morning, Hasmik Evoyan, along with other members and supporters of the ‘Founding Parliament’ was apprehended in Vanadzor without any grounds and kept at the RA Police Bazum division in Vanadzor town for almost 18 hours.
Arayik Zalyan and Ani Chatinyan, lawyers at HCA Vanadzor, and Artur Sakunts, Chairman of the Organization, who visited the police division upon her alert, stayed near the police division for around 3 hours and were given no opportunity to see H. Evoyan.
HCA Vanadzor filed a crime report on the grounds of obstructing attorneys’ activities demanding to hold liable the Head and other officials of Bazum Division.
By the RA SIS decree of August 4, 2016, the initiation of the criminal proceedings was rejected due to the lack of corpus delicti.
Interestingly, the decree on rejecting the initiation of criminal proceedings was based on the information provided by police officers by qualifying the clarifications of Hasmik Evoyan and HCA Vanadzor staff as an opinion of an interested party.
Meanwhile, the police officers, given an opportunity to reach mutual agreement, provided similar clarifications insisting that at the moment the attorneys arrived to provide Hasmik Evoyan with legal assistance, she was no longer at the police division and they “had no intention” to obstruct the attorneys’ activity. Whereas, on July 17, HCA Vanadzor made regular publications that despite staying for hours near the police division, the attorneys were given no opportunity to see their client Hasmik Evoyan. Being kept at the police division illegally, the latter was in fact deprived of her right to legal assistance. Despite this, Hasmik Evoyan’s parents also gave surprisingly contradictory clarifications.
There is a blatant contradiction in the clarifications of the parties which has not received due attention by the investigative agency which aimed to cover up another human rights violation; by doing so, the competent state agencies directly sponsor the offenders and give them an opportunity to avoid responsibility.
The investigative agency should have at least seized the video records of the video devices in the area of Bazum police division, which would make it possible to clearly determine both how long Hasmik Evoyan was kept at the police division and how long the attorneys stayed at the police premises, rather than selectively evaluate the clarifications and make a biased decision in violation of penal and procedural regulations.
The investigative agency’s decree above was appealed on August 23, 2016 to the RA General Prosecutor’s Office. The response of the Prosecutor’s Office has not been received so far.