“Amnesty International” Reports upon March 1 Nikol Pashinyan and violations in Armenia

Today “Amnesty International” right protective organization published its annual report, where it referred to the violations of human rights throughout the world.  

With regard to the section on Armenian, the organization mentioned a number of basic violations in this field, including tortures, violations at detention facilities and Police departments such as March 1 events and Nikol Pashinyan, etc.

It is stated in the report that during September of 2010, the UN-mandated Working Group on Arbitrary Detention expressed concerns regarding the violations and oppressions exerted against the arrested and detained persons. The report touches upon the applied pressures with an aim to extract confessions.

A reference is also made to Vahan Khalafyan’s death, detained at the police precinct in Charentsavan on charges of theft. According to the official version, he had committed a suicide being ill-treated by police officers but his family disputed the suicide version.

In the section of “Impunity”, the organization experts mentioned March 1 events, stating that no one had been brought to justice in connection with 10 deaths. A reference is made to the proceedings initiated by the families of victims against the General Prosecutor’s Office for failing to investigate the deaths. The General Jurisdiction Court dismissed their complaints and its decisions were upheld by the Appeal Court and the Supreme Court.

In the “Freedom of Expression” section, the report authors have referred to the case of Nikol Pashinyan, who was reportedly assaulted while serving a revised prison sentence. He continued to write articles for his newspaper while in detention. It is reported that Nikol Pashinyan had been threatened with harm unless he stopped exposing in his newspaper allegedly corrupt practices in the penitentiary system. Following the assault, the journalist was moved to penitentiary.

In the section of “Violence against women and girls” a reference was made to such issues existing in Armenia. Through the government has set up the State Interagency Committee to Combat Gender-Based Violence following a decree by the Prime Minister, the report measures no progress in this field. The report touched upon 20-year-old Zaruhi Petrosyan, a victim of ongoing domestic violence, died, reportedly after being severely beaten by her husband and mother-in-law. It is specifically noted that following extensive publicity about the case, the authorities arrested her husband and charged him with “causing willfully heavy damage to health”.

The report states about 73 men serving prison sentences for refusing to do military service on grounds of conscience mentioning that alternative service remained under military control.

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The report is attached hereby.