Masked Individuals with Firearms Forcefully Detain Mkhitar Zakaryan

The law enforcement agencies seem unconcerned about their reputation. This was stated by lawyer Yerem Sargsyan on his Facebook page. He particularly mentioned: “Lies and deceit have become guiding principles, whereas they are antonyms to law enforcement and legality.”

“In accordance with a verbal agreement with high-ranking police officials, today around midnight, we went to the building of the Criminal Police Department and entered, informing that we had voluntarily appeared as per the agreement. The police pretended to be unaware of the reason for our visit and suggested we wait while they clarified the situation. During this time, just about 2-3 minutes later, two police vans exited through another entrance of the same police building, with numerous masked individuals armed with firearms getting out. Using illegal methods and disproportionate force, they forced Mkhitar Zakaryan, labeled as a 'particularly dangerous criminal,' to the ground, filmed him, and then forcibly took him inside, while also obstructing the activities of the lawyers.”

“After persistent efforts, the lawyers were eventually allowed inside, and further actions revealed that for two days, police employees had been preparing grounds for the illegal arrest of M. Zakaryan through evident illegal activities and falsifications, in order to carry out this disgraceful masked show.”

A report has been made about the police's illegal actions. The basis for the arrest lies in obviously false information claiming that employees from the Meghri Police Department visited Mkhitar Zakaryan's home multiple times, but due to the doors being closed, they couldn’t deliver a notification for him to appear before the investigator. In reality, the police were aware that a family member was waiting at home specifically for the notification to be handed over, and we requested that if such was the case, to either deliver it or inform us about it. They deliberately did not deliver it and did not inform us.

I insist that the claims regarding the impossibility of delivering that notification are patently false, and I have irrefutable evidence regarding this. It is a kingdom of lies and deceit… Police ‘fighting’ against fictitious crimes while committing real offenses.”