Footage circulated online shows that Lilit Aghekian, who used to work as spokeswoman for the mayor of Gyumri, wore what looked like a nightgown and slippers when she was forcibly taken from her home to a police station in Armenia’s second largest city late in the evening. Aghekian claimed to have been stripped and hit by police officers there. Her lawyer, Zaruhi Postanjian, posted a photograph of one of those policemen on social media.
The Interior Ministry in Yerevan flatly denied the allegations at the weekend. It said that Aghekian, who has also worked as a journalist, was strip-searched by only female officers before being privately examined by doctors.
The strong denials did not end an uproar caused by her arrest, with opposition lawmakers saying on Monday that she should not have been taken into custody in the first place. They raised the matter with the head of Armenia’s Investigative Committee, Artur Poghosian, during a session of the Armenian parliament.
One of those lawmakers, Anna Grigorian, accused law-enforcement authorities of politically motivated double standards, arguing that the head of Yerevan’s Nor Nork district, Tigran Ter-Margarian, was not arrested or even fired despite beating up a video blogger earlier this month.
“How is it that the district head who beat up [the blogger] is not only still in office but also free, while the other person [Aghekian,] who only made an assessment, is under arrest?” she asked.
Poghosian responded by saying that Aghekian was arrested because she was charged with multiple crimes and engaged in “inappropriate” behavior after her indictment.
“She committed hooliganism at a school [in Gyumri] with the participation of and against minors,” he said. “She disrupted and paralyzed normal activities of the entire school for personal reasons, and also disrupted a judicial process and insulted a judge.”
Poghosian did not shed more light on those incidents. The press office of his law-enforcement agency has not reported their details either.
Zaruhi Hovannisian, a veteran human rights activist, echoed the opposition criticism of the woman’s arrest and treatment by the Gyumri police. She should have at most been placed under house arrest, Hovannisian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.