I have been followed and pulled, not allowing me to submit documents: Opposition figure on being detained by police

Yesterday, information emerged that opposition politician Karapet Poghosyan was detained in front of a child in Gyumri. The director and founder of the National Park-Museum of Sculpture in Gyumri, Arthur Gevorgyan, wrote on his Facebook page: "Karapet Poghosyan was taken down to the ground while being detained, and he has injuries, and he was taking the child home. This is the event. This is how the current government treats the opposition. This is a free, independent Armenia." Later, Grigoryan made another post on Facebook announcing that Karapet Poghosyan was arrested and had injuries, and he was taken to downtown Gyumri in that condition. Last night, Karapet Poghosyan was released.

Today, the police issued a clarification regarding the incident, stating that Karapet Poghosyan was detained for violating traffic regulations. Karapet Poghosyan shared more details with hraparak.am: "I have injuries on my chest and wrists, and shortly I will undergo an expert examination by the forensic investigator. In reality, they committed hooliganism because I was ready to go with them. Since half past eight in the morning, the same cars have been following me, and it was clear to me that they were organizing a show. Therefore, I did not resist; otherwise, they would have tried to detain me under that characteristic. But since those characteristics were not present, they tried to qualify it as hooliganism, yet they could not even select a corresponding article in the end because it did not exist. In their recordings, I also tried to present documents, which they again did not allow, pulling me. After being taken to the police station, numerous violations were committed. Until 10 AM, they did not inform me why I was detained - under which article of the criminal code, and on which characteristics. My hands were in handcuffs for over 50 minutes. They did not even allow me to use basic rights, and they did not allow my lawyer to engage in the case for over an hour, until he called 1-02 from inside the station reporting a crime. All of this was connected to my previous day’s Facebook post, where I raised issues regarding violations committed by the head of the patrol service of the RA police, Arthur Umrustyan, and his colleague Karen Nazaryan, about the patrol officer Onik Sahakyan assigned in Gyumri. Today, my lawyer is submitting several reports to the Prosecutor General’s Office. Therefore, they wanted to intimidate me regarding Onik, regarding the forgeries he committed against soldiers, to prevent a report from being filed, and for the case not to enter the prosecutor's office, but that will not succeed," Karapet Poghosyan told us.