Hrayr Tovmasyan on Artur Sargsyan’s death and claim for Arpine Hovhnnisyan’s resignation

“I’d refrain from assessments,” Hrayr Tovmasyan, RPA member, told at today’s debate launched by Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS), reflecting to the legal aspect of Artur Sargsyan’s tragic death.

Joining the condolences, Tovmasyan said it’d be proper to refrain from assessments, as many circumstances aren’t clear. Moreover, in his words, cause-and-effect connection of detention and death of Artur Sargsyan isn’t clear.

“I realize that it’s a good opportunity to criticize the authorities, however, you all edified a couple of months ago, how a black young man was shot in the USA, who was taking off his phone, but nobody called the US authorities “predatory”, protesters demanded to punish the guilty.

The fact that we have a range of issues in the field is obvious. Firstly, statistics on the precautionary measure isn’t in favor of Armenia, as mainly detention is implied, but this was conditioned by the fact that in our legislation, besides it, other measures weren’t necessary for the pursued purpose. This is the reason that probation service is being introduced, which is meant to solve these issues,” Hrayr Tovmasyan said. He said if there are guilty in the circle, they should be punished.

Replying to the question of Satik Seyranyan, editor-in-chief of “168 Hours” newspaper, how he refers to resignation, in particular that of the Minister of Justice, Hrayr Tovmasyan said Justice Minister has nothing to do with the use of detention as a precautionary measure.

“It should be observed whether the person had illness, regarding which there were no enough specialists, doctors, conditions in the penitentiary, and if not, why there was no decision to organize person’s treatment in the hospital? I have no answer to these questions,” Hrayr Tovmasyan said.

By Araks Martirosyan