The Armenian police break their promise and don't release the civil activists. Instead, Deputy Head of Police Artur Osipyan offers the protesters to set up a delegation to negotiate with the Police leadership.
ArmInfo's correspondent reports from the scene that the protesters are not going to accept Osipyan's proposal and want to burst into the Center community's police department building. At the moment Armenian MP, oppositionist Nikol Pashinyan is negotiating with the police to release the activists. Petros Ghazaryan, a well-known TV presenter, and Alen Simonyan, Editor-in-Chief of Ararat Magazine, are among the protesters.
To recall, the demonstrators made their way from the Municipality of Yerevan to the police department of Yerevan's Center community to hold a picket there.
They demanded releasing the four activists detained by the Police on Tuesday morning. However, two more activists have been detained during the picket near the police department. Nevertheless, Artur Osipyan, Deputy Head of Police, assured the protesters that the activists would shortly be set free provided that the protest action was stopped. The protesters, in turn, said that if the Police broke the promise, they would break into the police building.
The police told ArmInfo that a criminal case has been instituted against 4 activists under Article 316 Part 1 of the Armenian Criminal Code. To note, the article envisages imprisonment ranging from 1 month to 5 years or a fine worth 300-500 times as much as the minimal wages.
When passing by the Government building, the protesters noticed Armenian Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan watching them through the window. The protesters stopped to express their discontent with the Government's policy and demanded the Premier's resignation. They chanted "Tigran, go away!" and continued their way to the Center police department.