Lawyer: Yerevan law enforcement officers tortured a citizen to extract a confession

ArmInfo. Police officers from the Yerevan branch of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Armenia tortured a citizen to extract a confession from him for an act he did not commit.

Lawyer Ashot Simonyan reported this on his Facebook page.

According to the lawyer, the incident occurred on September 6, 2026, at approximately 1:30 PM, on a street in the capital. The lawyer said his client was stopped by a patrol car on the sidewalk near his residence.

"Under unclear circumstances, force was used against him, after which he was taken to the Shengavit police station." There, after nothing was found during a personal search, police officers tortured the citizen in an attempt to extract a confession from him that he allegedly possessed a certain quantity—approximately 0.5 grams—of marijuana," Simonyan reported.

According to him, after approximately six hours of illegal detention and torture, the citizen was brought to the Shengavit Investigative Department of the Investigative Committee of Armenia, where, deprived of any legal assistance or support, the citizen was forced to "confess" to possessing marijuana for personal use, which law enforcement officers had in fact planted on him.

"The citizen has already contacted me today with a request to represent his interests. All bodily injuries will be documented during a medical examination at a private medical center and provided to the body conducting the case, as well as the prosecutor's office. "A crime report has been filed," the lawyer stated.

Simonyan noted that they expect all those responsible for actions aimed at pinning a "misdemeanor" on someone, even one that is not a crime, to be held accountable. He explained that, according to Armenian law, possession of a small amount of a narcotic drug is considered an administrative offense. He said he will also seek to hold law enforcement accountable for extracting confessions through torture. "By such practices, certain representatives of the law enforcement system irreparably and irrevocably tarnish not only their own reputations, but also the reputations of tens and hundreds of their conscientious colleagues, as well as the reputation of the Republic of Armenia as a democratic state," the lawyer concluded.