Armenia’s Investigative Committee said on Tuesday that they as well as two other men committed “hooligan” acts, including a kick on a riot policeman’s shield.
At least one of the five suspects was among 27 demonstrators who were detained during the protest staged outside the Armenian Foreign Ministry building and set free without charge on Monday. Gegham Petrosian was rearrested and indicted just hours later.
A Yerevan court remanded Petrosian in custody. Court hearings on the pre-trial arrest of the two other detainees were expected to start late on Tuesday.
In a statement, the Investigative Committee said that the five suspects swore at the police officers guarding the ministry building and pelted them with various objects. One of them also kicked a shield held by a policeman, it said, adding that this “disrupted the calm of the persons at the scene.” The law-enforcement agency also released a 35-second video of the scuffles meant to prove its accusations.
The Investigative Committee said nothing about injuries inflicted on officers. The Armenian claimed earlier that seven of them were injured during Friday’s incident.
“The video shows nothing,” countered Ruben Melikian, an opposition-linked lawyer representing many protesters.
“Is kicking a shield more dangerous than smashing people’s heads? Is the police shield a more important value in our country than citizens’ heads?” he told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
Melikian referred to several protesters who were seriously injured when security forces tried to push the crowd back from the building.
“Five or six policemen toppled me to the ground and started kicking and then punching various parts of my body,” said one of those protesters, Arman Sargsian. “I don’t remember how long it lasted. When they stopped for a moment I tried to move, but one of the policemen grabbed by foot and they continued to hit me in the head and other parts of my body.”
No police officer has been prosecuted for using what Galstanian and Armenian opposition leaders see as excessive force against participants of antigovernment protests that began in the northern Tavush province on April 20 and reached Yerevan on May 9. Several policemen were caught on camera punching, kicking and swearing at an opposition lawmaker, Ashot Simonian, during such protests on May 27.
By contrast, the authorities have pressed “hooliganism” charges against at least 24 protesters. Nearly half of them are now under arrest.
Galstanian has condemned these cases as politically motivated and decried other “repressions” against his supporters. Hundreds of people led by the archbishop picketed the Investigative Committee headquarters in protest on Monday.