EU Commissioner welcomes probe into 2008 crackdown in Armenia

PanARMENIAN.Net - Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Dunja Mijatović has unveiled the Annual activity report 2018 for Armenia.

The Commissioner carried out a visit to Armenia from 15 to 20 September, focusing on women’s rights, gender equality and domestic violence, the human rights of disadvantaged and vulnerable groups, and questions related to accountability for past human rights violations. In the course of the visit, the Commissioner and her delegation met with various representatives of the authorities, members of civil society, political and legal experts, diplomats, as well as the Human Rights Defender (Ombudsman).

In the report, the Commissioner welcomed the steps taken to establish responsibility for the ten deaths that occurred during the violent events of March 2008,

Mijatović also stressed the importance of carrying out the process in full respect of the rule of law, judicial independence and the presumption of innocence of any person charged with criminal misconduct.

Robert Kocharyan, who was the President of Armenia in 1998–2008, is accused of overthrowing the constitutional order and money laundering. The first case is related to the crackdown on peaceful protests against the results of the presidential election in March 2008. At the time, ten people were killed in clashes between protesters and the police, about 200 were injured. At the end of August 2018, the court released Kocharyan on bail but he was incarcerated again on December 7 of last year.