Ombudsman: police uses torture in Armenia

As stated by Ombudsman Armen Arutyunyan at a press conference on April 21, now the police of Armenia use violence and torture with the aim to receive confessions.

"I should state with great regret that beatings and torture have already become vicious practice in our law-enforcement system; while the reigning atmosphere of impunity contributes to increase in the number of such cases. Human life is terribly devalued," said the Ombudsman.

He said that employees of his office had repeatedly detected, when visiting police stations, citizens with bruises and traces of torture on their bodies. According to his story, it is almost impossible to restore the citizens' violated rights, as the facts presented by citizens are always treated by the police as unreal and groundless.

The Ombudsman especially emphasized the recent death at a police station in the city of Charentsavan of Vaan Khalafyan, 24, accused of a theft.

"It's no matter what versions exist. The point is different: this is not the first case. Even if the suicide version, put forward by the head of the police, is truthful, all the same, someone should be made responsible. What does it mean - a man came to the police and committed suicide there? The statement of Alik Sargsyan, head of the police of Armenia, that Vaan Khalafyan was surely not subjected to torture but committed suicide, is inadmissible," Ombudsman Arutyunyan has noted. According to his story, prior to announcement of the results of the forensic-medical examination, nobody should make such statements, as the whole picture of what had happened will be clear only after experts' conclusions.