YEREVAN.- Head of the ruling coalition in negotiations with the opposition Davit Harutunyan dismissed reports about violence used against young opposition activists in detention.

Talking to the Armenian News-NEWS.am correspondent, Harutunyan said he was informed by Levon Zurabyan, member of the opposition Armenian National Congress, that the detainees are beaten in the cell.

“To keep my promise to follow the incident as an MP, I went to a place of detention, met separately with all seven detainees. They all confirmed that the information is untrue, no violence was used against them in pretrial detention cell,” he said.

According to information of the Helsinki Association for human rights, late on Wednesday evening a group of young ANC activists saw a group of policemen who were checking the documents of passers-by in the Yerevan center.

Activists demanded that policemen should justify their actions, after which they were detained and beaten. Seven detained ANC activists are Tigran Arakelyan, Sahak Muradyan, Areg Gevorgyan, Sargis Gevorgyan, Artak Karapetyan, David Kiramijyan, Vahagn Gevorgyan.