Your trusted source

Police officers detained two people in front of the Court of General Jurisdiction in Yerevan's central Kentron district amid hearings on a motion to arrest the opposition Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP) leader, lawmaker Gagik Tsarukyan on Friday.

Speaking to reports, Levon Ghazaryan, Inspector of Public Order and Public Security of Yerevan Police Department, said the men had been detained for defying police orders, particularly for refusing to wear a face mask and arguing with police officers.

Some of the people rallying support for Tsarukyan outside the court building since Friday morning failed to comply with the mandatory rule of wearing face masks, the inspector said.

“In order to take appropriate coercive measures, the police officers approached the citizens who did not obey their lawful orders. That is why additional enforcement measures were taken," he said.

To a journalist's observation that police officers used force to detain one of the citizens, Ghazaryan said. "The police may use physical force when carrying out their legal activity in cases provided by law.”

Meanwhile, he said it is not yet clear if the detained person is one of the participants of the rally or not.