Rights defenders criticize official version of bus incident in Yerevan

The version that the persons, who rushed into the bus of the Ministry of Defence (MoD) wanted to escort their relatives into the army is questionable, an MoD spokesman and rights defenders have stated. Both suspects regret about their actions, said their advocate.

On January 8, in Yerevan, a group of men in cars stopped a bus with draftees and broke inside. The police have opened a hooliganism case. Two participants in the incident, Gor Akopyan and Meruzhan Voskanyan, voluntarily appeared at the police and were arrested. According to policemen, both men have a criminal record.

Zhanna Aleksanyan, the head of the NGO "Journalists for Human Rights", has noted that it is not clear yet why the men did it. She believes that there was some reason for the men to stop the MoD's bus.

"There was surely some dispute. People came to sort things out," says Arthur Sakunts, the head of the Vanadzor Branch of the Helsinki Civil Assembly.

The attackers' actions are typical for the criminal subculture, which has spread not only in jails, but also in educational institutions and in the army, Avetik Ishkhanyan, the head of the Armenian Helsinki Committee, has added.

He criticized investigators for making public the detainees' photos and a video with their confessions. This is a violation of the presumption of innocence, he believes.