Didn’t Police Officials obstruct protest Participants?

On April 15, 2011, the RA Shirak Region Court of First Instance rejected the filing of a criminal case based on the claims of Artur Sakunts and Levon Barseghyan.

On February 17,2011, Helsinki Citizens Assembly-Vanadzor sent a claim to the RA General Prosecutor’s office and the RA Special Investigation Service regarding the illegal restrictions of citizens’ rights to hold assemblies, rallies, marches, demonstrations and for violations of their freedom of movement by the Police on February 15 of 2011.It is worth noting that on February 15, 2011 a group of Vanadzor and Gyumri drivers initiated an act of protest,targeted at the2010 amendments of the RA Customs Code, pursuant to which, vehicles with Georgian state license plates had toclear customs before being used in Armenia. However, the protest participantsencountered a number of obstacles as their freedom of movementwas obstructed for 2 hours by the police officials particularly, in Jajur village, located on the Gyumri toVanadzor highway. 

Police officialsalso restricted the right to freedom of movement of drivers who wanted to participate in a rally near the entrance to the City of Vanadzor, a distance of approximately1 km from the crossroads of Vanadzor and Stepanavan.  A tractor wasparked in the center of the road blocking access to Vanadzor.

HCA-Vanadzor sent the claim, but the RA Shirak Region Court of First Instance has rejected the filing of a criminal case against the police officials based on absence of crime.