Gyumri protester back at large

Today, Mnatsakan Aleksanyan, who was detained on suspicion of organizing disorders at the Russian General Consulate in Gyumri, has been released from the Akhuryan temporary detention facility (IVS) under recognizance not to leave.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that Aleksanyan, a villager of Sarnakhbyur, was detained on February 4 on suspicion of hooliganism and violence against a power official during the rally on January 15, which demanded to hand over Valery Permyakov, a regular soldier of the 102^nd of the Russian military base stationed in Gyumri, to Armenian authorities.

On January 12, in Gyumri, six members of the Avetisyan family were assassinated. The only survivor of the attack – the six-month-old Sergey Avetisyan – was hospitalized in critical condition and died in hospital on January 19. A Russian regular soldier Valery Permyakov was arrested as a suspect of committing the massacre. The mass murder in Gyumri triggered a wave of protests that escalated into clashes with the police. Protesters demanded that Permyakov to be tried in Armenia. 28 protesters in Yerevan and 13 protesters in Gyumri were detained; later they all were released from the police station. In the end of January police began searching for the suspected organizers of the riots.

Sona Truzyan, the press secretary of the Investigating Service of Armenia, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that Mnatsakan Aleksanyan was released from the Akhuryan IVS under recognizance not to leave. She added that Aleksanyan remains to be a suspect.

Mnatsakan Aleksanyan told reporters after release that he was not exposed to pressure in detention. He has no regrets about his coming out to protest and demand the extradition of Permyakov to Armenian law enforcers. "This is our fair demand; any decent Armenian would have done the same in my place," said the activist.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.