Emma Grigoryan was not informed that a lawyer had come to see her — details of arrests in Gyumri

Earlier, criminal police officers conducted searches at the apartment of the head of the headquarters of the Mother Armenia Alliance participating in the Gyumri City Council elections, Ara Voskanyan, as well as at the bloc’s office. Mother Armenia bloc supporter Emma Grigoryan was also taken to the Anti-Corruption Committee.

Alpha News discussed this issue with lawyer and human rights activist Hovhannes Khudoyan.

“Today, when I went to the Anti-Corruption Committee to defend Emma Grigoryan’s interests, she was already being interrogated without a lawyer. While there, I was unable to contact any of the investigators, so we were forced to contact the Ombudsman’s office. They came, organized a meeting, and then I learned that Emma was being interrogated at the very time I was waiting to meet with her. This violated her right to defense. Then they explained that Emma Grigoryan had waived her right to a lawyer, but she was not informed that a lawyer had already come to see her. Instead, she was offered to invite a public defender, which she refused.

It is very disturbing that the security forces are wiretapping the opposition, finding expressions of interest to them in their phone conversations, and using them to construct some kind of investigative hypothesis. It was on the basis of such a hypothesis that Emma was taken to the Anti-Corruption Committee, allegedly because she promised to provide charitable assistance after the elections, related to some national costumes. But this was not a promise with a specific sum, it was just a conversation between two friends. It is also interesting that this conversation took place on March 15, but for some reason they decided that today was the day to carry out these urgent actions,” Khudoyan noted.

Speaking about how to act in such situations, the human rights activist noted that one cannot give testimony without the presence of lawyers.

“The most important thing is not to trust the words of law enforcement officials. You should communicate with them exclusively through lawyers, do not testify without their presence, since these processes are not initially aimed at achieving justice by criminal procedural methods. These are actions that hinder pre-election processes. Therefore, such issues should be approached with maximum protection, avoiding strange communications and proposals,” Khudoyan concluded.