Armenian Police: Fact of beating of Artsakh war veteran Smbat Hakobyan to be investigated

 On September 21 at 2:50 pm, the Operations Control Center of Yerevan informed the Police that a citizen called the Center to say that a bloodstained man has been found in Abovyan Street, the press office of the Armenian Police reports.    

The police were informed that Smbat H. (born in 1962) was taken to hospital. The investigators have found out that on September 21, at 2:45 pm, Smbat H. was beaten by unknown people in 2/1, Abovyan Street. A forensic medical examination will be conducted. Preliminary investigation is underway.     

To note, on September 21 Smbat Hakobyan, an Artsakh war veteran, was severely beaten in the center of Yerevan. A few minutes prior to the incident, Hakobyan, together with a number of civic initiatives, participated in a protest action in front of the office of the ruling Republican Party of Armenia (RPA), calling for shift in power. Hakobyan was hospitalized with numerous injuries and fractures. At the moment he is at the intensive care unit and his condition is moderately grave. The beaten veteran was unable to tell the details of the incident. The activists who helped him say that when the procession was over and the veteran was walking along Abovyan Street, 5-6 people in civvies approached him, showed him something like an identity document, forced him to enter a fenced territory in Abovyan Street, and severely beat him there. The activists say they did not manage to see what car those persons got out of, however, while the veteran was being beaten, not a single policeman responded to their cries. So, they had to push the garbage cans in Abovyan Street to the traffic area and to block the street in order to spark turmoil. Only after that the police arrived at the scene, the activists say.