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Detentions: Due Process Violations and Torture

It is difficult to estimate the total number of opposition supporters detained since the beginning of April 2004. By April 17, the Justice Alliance had documented the detentions of 327 opposition supporters, and the Republic Party estimated that about 300 of its members had been either detained, harassed, or searched.⁶⁴

As of this writing, at least eight opposition supporters are in pre-trial custody on criminal charges. These include the four people detained in Giumri on March 28 who are charged with criminal hooliganism and four detained in April in the case against the Justice Alliance.⁶⁵ The latter four are members of the Republic Party: Vargarash Harutunian, on charges of attempting to overthrow the government, public calls for seizure of power by force, and publicly insulting representatives of government;⁶⁶ Zhora Sapean, a district party leader, on charges of publicly insulting representatives of government, for allegedly accusing the president and minister of defense of corruption when speaking at a public rally;⁶⁷and two others on similar charges.⁶⁸

The others were detained and held for from several hours to fifteen days. Many were held and then released with no documentation or registration of the arrest ever having occurred. Others were taken to court, and given penalties of up to fifteen days in custody for petty offences under the Administrative Code.⁶⁹

The trials were cursory, flouting all international protections for a fair trial, and repeating a pattern of abuses with administrative detentions documented during the 2003 presidential elections. Defendants in administrative cases were denied access to lawyers, not able to present evidence, and routinely convicted on the basis of several minutes of police evidence. Practical barriers to appeal make it virtually impossible to take the cases to higher courts.⁷⁰

In the case of the April 5 detention of three people who were attempting to travel from Vanadzor to Yerevan to attend a rally, a judge refused to allow them to present evidence in their defense. Police had taken the three—Aram Revasian, Artur Shahnazarian, and Rezh Makumian—all members of the National Unity Party, to the local court where they were tried under the Administrative Code for not following police orders. Revasian requested that others who were traveling in the car with him be called as witnesses in the case. The judge refused his request and sentenced all three to five days’ administrative detention on the basis of evidence of one police officer.⁷¹

On April 14, the seven people detained at the Republic Party headquarters on the night of April 12-13 were tried at the Erebuni District Court in Yerevan for breaching public order under the Administrative Code. The police read out the charge sheet, the judge asked no questions, and fined the defendants each 500 drams (approximately U.S. $1). The defendants had been held in custody for up to thirty-six hours prior to the court hearing, and officials refused to return their passports until they paid the fines.⁷²

On April 12, police from the Malatia Sebastia police station detained Karen Shahumian, a member of the People’s Party, while he was in a car with loud speakers, announcing details of the opposition rally to be held later in the day. At the local court, he was sentenced to five days of administrative detention. His relatives, concerned for his health since he suffered from heart problems, requested the assistance of a lawyer to appeal the case. The lawyer, however, could get no documentation about the case, and could not meet with Shahumian. The lawyer was not even able to find out the charges under which Shahumian had been sentenced. It was therefore impossible for the lawyer to appeal the case.⁷³

Talking about the obstacles faced by lawyers in administrative cases, Tigran Ter-Esayan told Human Rights Watch: “We try to help, but there are no documents. We can’t appeal without documents. The police deny that [a defendant] is in their custody, say that he doesn’t need a lawyer. They say that the trial has already happened. We ask for documents and they say ‘tomorrow,’ ‘the day after tomorrow,’ and the time has gone.”⁷⁴

Torture and ill-treatment in police custody

Human Rights Watch documented several cases of torture and ill-treatment in police custody during the government crackdown against the opposition in April 2004. Opposition party officials claim that during this period police regularly beat their supporters in police custody: “There were lots of cases of people being beaten at the police stations after detention, especially those who came from the regions.”⁷⁵ Armenia is obligated under international law to prevent acts of torture.⁷⁶

On the night of April 12-13, Oride Harustanian was detained with a group of women, including her nineteen-year-old daughter, at the Republic Party headquarters. Police took them to the Erebuni police station in Yerevan where the police shouted and swore at them. They were placed in a room. Harustanian told Human Rights Watch, “Then the head of the Erebuni police came in. He came up to me and said ‘So you want to take power,’ and slapped me three times very hard on the face.”⁷⁷ He then went to each person in turn and assaulted them, kicking and kneeing them, and punching one woman in the head. Several of the group had serious bruising to the legs after the attack. Police did not provide food to the group on the day of April 13. Members of the group were held for up to thirty-six hours, and were then released, some receiving administrative fines, others receiving no explanation as to the reason for having been detained.⁷⁸

Police also detained a young woman on the night of April 12-13.⁷⁹ She was taken to a local police station in Yerevan with a group of opposition party activists. Police separated her from the group and put her in a room in the police station. There were four or five uniformed police in the room. She told Human Rights Watch:

Then someone came in, a high level police officer. All the other police stood up for him when he came in. I also stood up and he began to beat me, kicking my body, hitting my face and swearing terribly. I was so scared that I wet myself. He beat me for about ten or fifteen minutes… I cried the whole time. I couldn’t speak… Then I heard loud voices in the corridor, shouting and swearing… It was the head of the [police station]. He came in and said ‘Ah, it was you who was at the protest.’ I said ‘no, it wasn’t me.’ He began to beat me with his fists and knees to my stomach. I fell and he kicked me on my back. He said, ‘now all our men will come in and rape you.’ He said worse things… He went on four about twenty minutes. I don’t remember everything. I remember coming to lying on the table. Then he left. I was on the floor.⁸⁰

She was released from custody after eighteen hours in detention. She received no explanation for her arrest. According to the young woman and a relative who cared for her after her release, she had bruising all over her body, and was suffering from severe stomach pains.