Advocates of ANC activists complain that policemen break their rights

The Advocates' Chamber of Armenia will try to initiate criminal prosecution of the power agents who have allegedly violated their rights at the police station. This was announced by Ruben Saakyan, Chairman of the Chamber.

On August 9, in central Yerevan, seven young activists of the oppositional Armenian National Congress (ANC) were detained after a skirmish with law enforcers. Activists' advocates assert that policemen hampered their work at the police station.

According to advocates, the police had isolated them from their clients; besides, they were kept under lock in one of the rooms for an hour, by which fact, as the lawyers assert, their right to free travel was broken.

In his turn, Alik Sarkisyan, the boss of the Police of Armenia, has stated that the information that advocates were not allowed to enter the police station and meet their clients was not true. "If they had not seen their clients – activists of the ANC, then, who made the video of these guys? The beaten activists could not make the video and post it on the Internet. Not they, but policemen themselves needed advocates," he believes.

The young ANC activists, who started a skirmish with policemen in the evening on August 9, are suspected of hooliganism. A criminal case was opened; and now an inquiry is underway. The opposition is accusing the police of violence against activists and demands to immediately release them.