Head of Armenia's Police Vladimir Gasparyan told reporters Wednesday he does not consider Shant Haroutiunyan, a civic activist and leader of the Tseghakron Party, as a political prisoner.
"What are you talking about? Shant Haroutiunyan's case was anything but political persecution," Gasparyan told reporters Wednesday and recommended to drop the subject, as those incidents happened over year ago.
Haroutiunyan was arrested on 5 November 2013 after clashes of activists with the police in the Liberty Square. Before those incidents, Haroutiunyan was picketing in the Square with a slogan "I am declaring a revolution!" The activist was sentenced to 6 years in prisoner after the trial that took over a year.
Asked if the police timely responded to the situation and whether it was not possible to prevent the clashes, Gasparyan said: "I assure you, if we interfered a few minutes earlier, they would say that the police attacked the people who were doing nothing bad and were just walking along the square. Yes, they were walking along...with sticks and 'Molotov cocktails,'" Gasparyan said.