Armenian Ombudsman demands punishment of policemen

Ombudsman Armen Arutyunyan has addressed Alik Sarkisyan, chief of the police of the Republic of Armenia with a demand to punish the police officers who commanded the dispersal of peaceful demonstrators on January 16.

The Ombudsman's letter to the police commander was accompanied by three videocassettes, confirming violence applied by policemen to demonstrators.

According to Armen Arutyunyan, he received the videocassettes from Levon Zurabyan, coordinator of the central office of the Armenian National Congress (ANC).

Vladimir Karapetyan, who is in charge of foreign policy issues at the ANC, has also addressed his open letter to the chief of the police, and also to the General Public Prosecutor of the Republic of Armenia.

The latter has notified Messrs Sarkisyan and Ovsepyan that on January 16 some of the high-ranking police officers, in particular, Colonel Robert Melkonyan and Lieutenant Colonel Valery Osipov, who commanded the dispersal of peaceful demonstrators, swore abusive words, pushed and beat demonstrators, including women.

One of the participants of the march Vaan S. told in his interview to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that policemen interfered with the march, motivating their actions by the argument that the demonstration hampered the traffic. However, even after the people agreed to keep to the sidewalk, policemen continued pursuing them.

We remind you that as a result of clashes with the police on January 16, two women were hospitalized; two journalists from the newspaper "Chorord Ishkhanutyun" (Fourth Power) - Tagui Tovmasyan and photographer Gagik Shamshyan - were injured; the latter was hospitalized and diagnosed a brain concussion.