Today, the [special] "red beret" police officers entered the main building of the American University of Armenia in gross violation of the law and illegally detained a group of students. In the same way, students were detained at the entrance of the university, too. Arman Tatoyan, director of the Tatoyan Foundation Center for Law and Justice, and the former Human Rights Defender (ombudsman) of Armenia, wrote about this on Facebook Tuesday evening and posted a respective video. Tatoyan added as follows, in particular:

“The actions of the ‘red beret’ police were clearly unlawful; the detentions were made without providing any reason to the students, the police acted in groups and used openly disproportionate force prohibited by law, including causing pain to the students.

"There was open disrespect towards the university, the education process was disrupted.

"Students were not presented with the rights, the provision of which is the direct legal obligation of the Police. The students were not informed about the reasons for their detention; they were not notified about a lawyer and other rights, which grossly violated the requirement of the law.

"Videos and testimonies of students clearly confirm that the arrested students did not commit not only administrative, but any violation in general. They were just standing in front of the university, some with Armenia’s flags and banners about Artsakh [(Nagorno-Karabakh)] and Armenia.

"The described illegal actions of the police against the [aforesaid] university students are highly condemnable and a gross violation of the law; they should not be repeated again.”