The European Court of Human Rights has published a decision declaring the dispersal of the Electric Yerevan protest and the detention of Hovhannes Ishkhanyan unlawful in the summer of 2015.
The ECHR ruling in the Ishkhanyan v. Armenia case emphasizes that in these circumstances, keeping a detainee under exclusive police control for more than seven hours amounts to deprivation of liberty. The court also found that there were no grounds for detention.
Hovhannes Ishkhanyan was taken to the Shengavit police station, subjected to a personal search, photographed, and fingerprinted. He was held from approximately 6:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. without food or rest, and his clothes were left soaking wet from the effects of a water cannon. No criminal charges were brought against Hovhannes Ishkhanyan, and he was released that same evening.
The ECHR ruling also emphasizes that the arrests during the “Electric Yerevan” protest were carried out en masse, without an individual assessment of the criminality of the applicant’s actions and without reasonable suspicion of having committed a crime.
