YEREVAN. – The Human Rights Defender of Armenia, Karen Andreasyan, has issued a statement in connection with a police officer slapping an elderly person.

“We strongly condemn the fact of police violence yesterday [i.e. Friday] against citizens at the Republic Square [in downtown capital city Yerevan].

“We will start proceedings, on our own initiative, to keep at the focus the process of bringing the [said] police officer to account. 

“We want to be sure that the police officers’ actions toward both those at the Republic Square and participants in other [public] assemblies will from now on stem solely from the law and absolute necessity, and [that] other disproportionate actions will be ruled out,” the Armenian ombudsman’s statement specifically reads.