EU human rights commissioner Thomas Hammerberg visited Armenia on November 20-22 to evaluate the situation with the people arrested as a result of the events of March 1 and the corresponding legal proceedings.
On Saturday Hammerberg shared his impressions of the visit with the journalists. His words and answers to journalists’ questions contained sharp critics concerning the situation with the arrested citizens and the legal proceedings involving them.
“When I prepare my statement soon, I will have to be quite critical to the developments, or, definitely, absence of such developments. I am very critical both to the finished proceedings and the current Case of 7. I don’t think that the proceedings and case have been handled out professionally. For example, I think that the fact of publishing the phone conversations of the arrested people with their relatives, which was done by the security services, is quite impermissible. In a country with rule of law such things are impermissible and it violates the right of people for personal information immunity,” said Hammerberg.
Hammerbeg also visited Armenia for the same purpose in mid July. And now, in four months after his last visit, he does not see any development in terms of investigation works and legal proceedings. The only positive fact he has found is the establishment of a fact-finding group. During the mentioned visit in July both Hammerberg and PACE president Luis Maria De Puig announced about the necessity to establish such fact-finding group but the president signed a resolution on establishing a fact-finding group only one month ago, and it started working only one week ago.
Hammerberg says that it is very bad that the police has instituted legal proceedings and are handling the cases only based on policemen’s testimonies. The PACE resolution as of June contains a provision about it as well: “Any cases based on testimonies of the police only and without supporting facts and proofs cannot be acceptable.” Certainly Hammerberg does not say that any directions or testimonies given by the police are unacceptable generally. “Specifically in cases when there is tension, even if not a scuffle between the society and the police, the testimonies of the police, especially when such testimonies are against demonstrators, should be substantiated with additional facts and proofs by all means,” said Hammerberg and added that he had information that witnesses had been intimidated to give such testimonies that would correspond to the pre-defined course of the criminal proceedings. Furthermore, a couple of people have raised their testimonies as a result of intimidation. “The criminal cases of 19 people were based exclusively on policemen’s testimonies. The letter submitted to regional prosecutors by the head of the investigation services asking for information about rally and demonstration participants but not concrete actions originates questions concerning the purpose and nature of the investigation,” writes the commissioner’s statement.
“The criminal cases involving the people charged under the 300th and 225th articles of the criminal code should be stopped except for the cases where there are justified facts proving that those people have committed or made other people or ordered to commit violence,” writes the PACE 1620 resolution. The prisoners charged under the case 7 are accused in violating the articles 300 and 225 (usurpation of state power with organizing mass disorder). Concerning this case the human rights commissioner says that till now there have not been any justified reasonable proofs, based on which the independent court could accuse those people in taking the power through violence. Hammerberg says that he will attentively follow this process. “Certainly when we see the final accusation conclusion, we will say whether there are justified grounds to pass the case of 7 to the court or no. I am worried about the fact that those people have been under arrest for over 8 months unlike the fact that there are no justified proofs witnessing that they are guilty in those crimes. One of them (Alexander Arzumanyan) spent more than one year in cells because he had been arrested four months before that too. It is a violation of the law which defines that the maximum term of preliminary arrest should not be more than one year,” said the HR commissioner.
Concerning the finished investigations and court proceedings he says that the same law was applied differently on different people and people were charged differently under the same investigation. “I have many concerns about the court proceedings and resolutions of the events of March 1. I have told the president, the authorities and other officials that I will have very critical approach and will be very strict if the issue is brought up at the European institutions and EU,” said Hammerberg. Journalists wandered whether the HR commissioner considers the people arrested as a result of March 1 events as political prisoners. The latter did not answer this question directly. He said that in case of the agreement between the European countries there should be no word about political prisoners at all because the HR European convention does not have the term “political prisoner”. It does not give the legal definition of this term either. He said that the situation in Armenia may become a reason for reconsidering the definition and meaning of that term. “If my recent examination shows that there are no reasons to assume that these people have really committed crimes, then I will be the one to suggest to define the term on political prisoners,” said Hammerberg.
Hammerberg is suggesting our law-enforcers to invite international experts in order to be able to make the right accusation conclusions and handle the cases in a duly manner. He has suggested the same thing to the fact-finding group as well. By the way, he also says that the establishment of the fact-finding group does not correspond to the Armenian Constitution. He believes such issues can be solved easily if people stay loyal and have a good faith. He says that the success of the group depends on the will of people to have a good faith within the group. During his meetings with the police chief and prosecutor Hammerberg petitioned them to satisfy the petitions of the group at any time. Hammerberg also expressed his opinion about the rumors that there were snipers during the events of March 1. Hammerberg says that it is not an extraordinary thing that people are suspicious that there might have been violence. He says that such shootings of sniper during such events are very serious and concerning. Hammerberg says that it is very concerning that during the events 10 people died, three out of which were killed as a result of special means used by the police, but the shooters from the police have not been discovered so far. “I was thinking that it is possible to find out the people whose shootings killed civilians. I have already discussed that issue twice with the prosecutor’s office. His answer is that they are hardly working to find it out but the fact is that they have not discovered so far who the shooter is. My advice is that they invite international experts to be able to find the connection between the bullets and shooter guns,” said Hammerberg. “I am really disappointed about all this information that I have,” said the HR commissioner at the end of the press conference. The PACE will discuss the issue of Armenia in January. Hammerberg said that the report that he was going to prepare would have influence on the PACE resolution. “Even though I am independent from the PACE and the PACE is independent from me, all what I will tell to the PACE and will write in my report will have its influence on the PACE conclusion,” said Hammerberg.
It is also worth mentioning that the HR commissioner said and emphasized that the Gerogian-Ossetian conflict, activation of the negotiations on the conflict of Karabakh, relations with Turkey are not connected with their approach to the issue of the court and criminal proceedings connected with the events of March 1. “Because it concerns the main human rights we have agreed upon and any violations of such rights are impermissible,” said the commissioner. Definitely this remark concerns the rumors that the PACE is connecting its approach with the events of March 1 and democracy in Armenia with possible settlement of Karabakh conflict. Anyway, after this festive mood and hot weather the authorities will have to take a cold European shower. Certainly they will if they don’t take certain specific steps to prevent it.