Armenian authorities have filed criminal charges against four more opposition supporters in connection with the June 12 clashes in Yerevan between riot police and protesters demanding Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s resignation.
The Investigative Committee announced on Wednesday that these latest indictments bring the total number of protesters prosecuted over the incident to 16. Eight of them are in pre-trial custody and five others are under house arrest, the law-enforcement agency stated.
Thousands of people, led by Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan, gathered on June 12 on a street outside the Armenian parliament building where Pashinyan was answering questions from lawmakers amid unprecedented security measures. Scuffles broke out moments before security forces hurled dozens of stun grenades into the crowd.
The use of force was strongly condemned not only by Galstanyan’s opposition-backed movement but also by Armenia’s leading civic groups. In a joint statement, 17 mostly Western-funded NGOs described the police actions as “unnecessary, disproportionate, and illegal.” They were particularly outraged by the unprecedented number of stun grenades used in the crackdown.
The Investigative Committee defended the crackdown, claiming it stopped “mass disturbances.” Echoing Pashinyan’s statements, it also claimed that protesters tried to break through police cordons to storm the parliament.
According to the committee, only one man now stands accused of participating in the “mass disturbances.” The other 15 indicted protesters were charged with “hooliganism,” which mainly involved throwing plastic bottles and other objects at riot police.
The arrested men include 73-year-old Tigran Saribekyan. A video of the clashes shows Saribekyan touching one of his ears, injured by a stun grenade blast, before picking up an object and throwing it towards the police officers.
Saribekyan’s lawyer, Ruben Melikyan, said that like other protesters, his client acted instinctively to express outrage at the indiscriminate use of deafening explosive devices. Melikyan argued that many policemen were also caught on camera throwing various objects at the crowd.
“If they arrested eight protesters for doing that, then they should have also arrested 80 policemen,” he told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
Varazdat Harutiunyan, another lawyer associated with Galstanyan’s movement, claimed that the investigators are acting on government orders. The head of the Investigative Committee, Argishti Kyaramyan, is one of Pashinyan’s trusted allies.
The committee on Wednesday claimed to be investigating “the proportionality and legality” of the police actions that left at least 83 protesters and 8 journalists injured. It indicated that no law-enforcement officers have been indicted.
Dozens of other protesters have also been seriously injured by the police since Archbishop Galstanyan launched his campaign for regime change on May 9. No policemen have been charged over these incidents, including the May 27 beating of opposition parliamentarian Ashot Simonyan by members of a special police squad.
Instead, the authorities have prosecuted dozens of Galstanyan’s supporters on various charges, all of which they deny. At least 29 of them are currently under arrest pending investigation.
