Police Assault Guard in Hospital, Village Chief Helping Him Also Attacked

On January 23, employees of the Masis division of the police reportedly assaulted a resident of the Ararat region's Aravabuyr community and the community chief in the Masis hospital.

In an interview with NEWS.am, Aravabuyr community chief Jivan Manukyan recounted how the incident unfolded: "Khachatur Grigoryan is a resident of my community who is a guard. He broke his leg while on duty and came to the hospital for treatment. I learned that he had been discharged from the Muratsan medical center and was experiencing pain at home, so he was taken to the Masis hospital. There, in pain, he raised his voice, asking to be given pain relief. The doctors didn’t take kindly to his behavior, and they called the police, who arrived and assaulted him in the hospital room. I arrived at the moment they were beating him outside and taking him toward their vehicle.

Jivan Manukyan explained that at that moment, he approached the police to intervene in the beating, and as a result, he was assaulted himself: "I went to the hospital just when the police were beating my resident outside, I approached and tried to intervene to stop the fight, and they assaulted me as well. They were hitting me on my broken leg."

The community chief stated that he sustained an injury to his head and has bruises all over his body: "I was transferred to ‘Erebuni’ hospital, and I’m already home now."

Manukyan noted that his resident also sustained injuries and will return to duty once his leg heals.

A representative from the police's public relations department informed NEWS.am that materials have been prepared in connection with the incident at the Erebuni police station and have been sent to the Special Investigative Service.