22:30, 2 June 2010

Armenia: oppositionists again could not hold sit-in protest action

Today in Armenia, the police have again hampered young members of the Armenian National Congress (ANC) to hold their sit-in protest action by not admitting them to the Freedom Square.

As in the previous days, today policemen have not allowed the protesters to the square without any explanation of the reasons.

As reported by the "Armenia Today" Agency, no major incidents between policemen and ANC activists were fixed.

In the opinion of Stepan Safaryan, leader of the parliamentary faction of the Party "Heritage", "the authorities have fears that the opposition may seize the Freedom Square." "It looks like the authorities are using law enforcement bodies in an attempt not to admit this," Radio Liberty quotes the politician as saying.

Let us remind that on May 31 the police dispersed participants of a sit-in protest action in the Freedom Square in Yerevan. 16 persons were detained. Subsequently, three of them were arrested.