Human Rights Watch calls on Armenian authorities to bring those responsible for beating of Smbat Hakobyan to account

Human Rights Watch has addressed the incident with veteran Smbat Hakobyan, who was beaten up in Yerevan. "A member of an independent political group 
critical of the Armenian government was savagely beaten after a protest in Yerevan, the capital, on September 21, 2015," Human Rights 
Watch said today. "The authorities should immediately investigate the beating of Smbat Hakobian, a member of the Alliance of Freedom Fighters, and bring those responsible to account.:

"No peaceful protester should have to fear a brutal beating just for expressing their views," said Rachel Denber, deputy Europe and 
Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "The effectiveness of the investigation into the vicious assault on Smbat Hakobian will be a true test of how seriously the Armenian government takes its commitment to free expression and peaceful assembly."

HWR recalls that Armenia is a party to the European Convention on Human Rights and has clear obligations under the convention not only 
to respect the right to peaceful assembly, but also to ensure the security of those exercising that right and protect them from unlawful interference by others.

Armenia also has obligations to carry out effective investigations into attacks on bodily integrity and personal security and to ensure 
that police use of force is in compliance with international standards. Those standards limit use of force to situations in which 
it is absolutely necessary to respond to physical threats to the police or others and then is strictly proportionate and nondiscriminatory.

"People in Armenia shouldn't be risking serious injury to take part in a peaceful protest," Denber said. "The government needs to make 
clear that anyone who interferes with peaceful protesters will be held accountable to the full extent of the law."

To note, on September 21 Smbat Hakobyan, an Artsakh war veteran, was severely beaten in the center of Yerevan. A few minutes prior to the 
incident, Hakobyan, together with a number of civic initiatives, participated in a protest action in front of the office of the ruling 
Republican Party of Armenia (RPA), calling for shift in power. Hakobyan was hospitalized with numerous injuries and fracturs. At 
the moment he is at the intensive care unit and his condition is moderately grave. The beaten veteran was unable to tell the details 
of the incident. The activists who helped him say that when the procession was over and the veteran was walking along Abovyan Street, 
5-6 people in civvies approached him, showed him something like an identity document, forced him to enter a fenced territory in Abovyan 
Street, and severely beat him there. The activists say they did not manage to see what car those persons got out of, however, while the 
veteran was being beaten, not a single policeman responded to their cries. So, they had to push the garbage cans in Abovyan Street to the 
traffic area and to block the street in order to spark turmoil. Only after that the police arrived at the scene, the activists say. It is 
widely rumored that the son-in-law of Ruben Hayrapetyan, the president of the Football Federation of Armenia, is complicit in the beating.