Police Responds to Reports of Assault and Chemical Use on a Man in Gyumri

The Police of Armenia has issued a statement regarding reports circulating in the media. The statement specifies that traffic police officers stopped a BMW vehicle in Gyumri for violating traffic rules.

The driver did not possess a driver's license or the vehicle's technical passport and resisted the police's legal demands. The officers used special measures to effectuate an administrative arrest. The reports of assault and the use of 'substance' are not true, according to the police.

As previously reported by AuroraNews.am, police stopped a citizen and requested documentation. The citizen asked for some time to call family members to bring the necessary documents. According to human rights defender Karapet Poghosyan, 'the officers did not agree to grant additional time, used special measures, and applied a substance to the citizen's eyes, after which they began to brutally beat him.'

The director of the Gyumri Ambulance Station, Arthur Manukyan, confirmed that the incident indeed occurred, leading to an ambulance call being registered. 'He was provided with medical assistance on-site, and there were no traces of violence or chemical substance in his eyes; moreover, the patient did not report such at all. He was offered transport to the hospital, but he declined in writing,' he stated.