Armenian Interior Minister: protection of police officers` legal  rights as consistent as punishment for breaking law 

ArmInfo. The Armenian Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) will protect the legal rights of police officers with the same consistency as they are held accountable for breaking the law. Interior Minister Arpine Sargsyan stated this in an interview with the Lurer news agency, responding to the incident  between investigators and a police officer.

According to her, Armenia is a state governed by the rule of law, and  the only competent body responsible for investigating such cases and  providing an impartial assessment should be the Anti-Corruption  Committee. "We are talking about two cases. The first concerns  alleged hooliganism and physical abuse, involving investigators, a  police officer, and other citizens. I must also note that I was the  one who filed the report regarding this incident," the minister  noted.

The second incident, she said, concerns the alleged use of torture by  the Investigative Committee against a police officer involved in the  first case. A report was also filed regarding this matter, the  Minister noted. 

"The Armenian Ministry of Internal Affairs will protect the  legitimate interests and dignity of every police officer with the  same consistency with which it holds accountable every police officer  who violates the law," Sargsyan concluded.

As a reminder, media outlets previously reported that late on August  21, investigators, with the participation of department head Rafael  Vardanyan, brutally beat a municipal police officer in front of the  Yerevan City Department of the Investigative Committee. An ambulance  was called for the officer after the beating. According to media  reports, the victim's relatives claimed that the investigators "took  revenge" on the police officer because a conflict had occurred  between him, the investigators, and a citizen the day before. Kima  Avdalyan, spokesperson for the Investigative Committee of Armenia,  subsequently refuted the reports published by the aforementioned  media outlets. She claimed the opposite was true-the police officer  had assaulted the investigators. On August 23, she also reported that  the police officer and another defendant had been remanded in custody  for two months by court order.