Police prevent Hovannisian’s supporters from putting canopy at Liberty Square
On March 20, on the sixth day of the "freedom fast" announced by Heritage party leader Raffi Hovannisian at Yerevan's Liberty Square, a group of Hovannisian's supporters tried to place a canopy above his head to protect him from weather changes.
According to a press release by Heritage party, police officers approached the group at 5:30 pm Sunday demanding them to wait for half an hour. The umbrella was placed at 6:00 pm. However, a few minutes later, some 20 individuals in police uniforms and plain clothes launched an assault, breaking the umbrella.
Heritage MPs Larisa Alaverdyan, Zaruhi Postanjyan, Anahit Bakhsyan, and a group of individuals protecting the umbrella were injured as a result of the police brutality. Discontent with the act of violence, the police officers dragged the broken and torn canopy together with Larisa Alaverdyan, whose hand was stuck among the iron poles, to the Opera House.
The incident was immediately reported to the OSCE Office in Yerevan, international and human rights organizations, foreign embassies and mass media, as well as to the chief of police and his deputies.
With her hand still stuck in iron sticks, Larisa Alaverdyan is sitting in front of the Opera House waiting for the arrival of high-ranking police officials. She wants them to explain the act of violence against a group of citizens who were simply exercising their right without any breach of law or constitution.
The video record of the police violence is available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbDpExC-a3g&feature=feedu.
Heritage calls on the police, Special Investigative Service and General Prosecutor's Office to start a criminal proceeding on the incident.
Earlier the police prohibited placing the umbrella on the square, without any legal reasoning.
Raffi Hovannisian went on an indeterminate hunger strike on March 15 demanding Armenia's leadership to hold fresh presidential and parliamentary elections. He pledges to proceed with his "freedom fast" as long as God gives him strength.
