OPPOSITION SUPPORTER DETAINED AFTER VISIT TO

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 YEREVAN 000341

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR EUR/CARC, NSC FOR MARIA GERMANO

E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/17/2018
TAGS: PHUM PGOV KDEM AM
SUBJECT: OPPOSITION SUPPORTER DETAINED AFTER VISIT TO
EMBASSY TO RECOUNT PREVIOUS DETENTION


YEREVAN 00000341 001.2 OF 002


Classified By: Charge d'Affaires Joseph Pennington, reasons 1.4 (b/d).

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SUMMARY
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1. (SBU) Post's Human Rights Officer learned that police
detained early on April 18 an LTP supporter who had visited
the Embassy the previous day. He had told us about a
previous detention on April 14, in which he alleged being
beaten by a deputy police chief and hearing other opposition
supporters being tortured for their participation in
opposition rallies. We also met April 17 with the father of
a 19-year-old man charged with provoking mass disorders
during the clashes, a charge the father says is untrue since
his son wasn't even there. Both men alleged that police
tried to extract false confessions during detention, and both
accused neighbors of informing on them to police about their
LTP sympathies. END SUMMARY.

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GARAGE MECHANIC PICKED UP AFTER TALKING TO EMBASSY
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2. (C) Far from ending, the anti-opposition police dragnet
seems to be widening to include rank-and-file LTP supporters
of LTP who are being picked up from their homes or
neighborhoods. On April 17, we met with two people referred
to us by Heritage Party MP Stepan Sararian -- Armen
Voskanian, a garage mechanic, and Kamo Grigorian, the father
of jailed 19-year-old Yeghishen Grigorian -- to recount their
detention by police following the April 9 inauguration of
President Sargsian. (On April 18, we received a frantic call
from the wife of the garage mechanic, who told us that police
had just taken her husband away for a second time, less than
24 hours after his visit to the Embassy.)


3. (C) Voskanian told emboffs of his April 14 detention,
during which he had been questioned about his presence at the
March 1 demonstrations that eventually turned violent, and
for his participation in LTP's post-election rallies on
Freedom Square. He said neighbors informed police of his
support for LTP, and that a deputy police chief beat him with
a chair during his 28 hours in custody. The police accused
him of looting shops on March 1, and tried to extract a false
confession. While he was in detention, he heard another
opposition supporter in the next room being tortured by a
police officer. He said he overheard screaming from the
room, which prompted a visit by another police officer who
opened the door and yelled at his colleague, "What are you
doing? You are going to make trouble for us!" (with the
implication being that his fellow policemen risked seriously
harming the suspect). When police later reviewed video that
showed Voskanian wasn't among the looters they released him,
but not without first warning Voskanian to be prepared for a
future summons.

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POLICE LURE 19-YEAR-OLD INTO DETENTION
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4. (C) The father of 19-year-old Yeghishen Grigorian
recounted to Emboffs how police had tricked his son into
capture by phoning him about a letter Yeghishen's schoolmate
had sent to him from his enlisted service in
Nagorno-Karabakh. When Grigorian went to pick up the letter,
three plainclothes police took him into custody. He is now
being held by the National Security Service on charges he
provoked mass disorders on March 1-2. His father
acknowledged that his son had participated in LTP's
post-election rallies on Freedom Square, but denied his son's
participation during the clashes, saying he wasn't even
present at that time. The elder Grigorian accused neighbors
of informing on his son, but defended them, saying "everyone
is afraid now, and being persecuted." He also said his son
had been duped into signing a false confession during the
first 72 hours of his detention, which took place at the same
police station to which Armen Voskanian had been taken. The
younger Grigorian renounced the confession when he was
arraigned at his court hearing.

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COMMENT
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5. (C) The new leaf we are hoping President Sargsian will
turn after his April 9 inauguration has yet to materialize,

YEREVAN 00000341 002.2 OF 002


as the continued post-inauguration arrests penetrate
ever-deeper into Armenian society. A garage mechanic and a
19-year-old hardly constitute the linchpins to an opposition
movement. It is also hard to see how such a formidable
allocation of resources in time and personnel for the
widening dragnet could take place without the blessing of law
enforcement officials at the highest level. What is also
troubling is how the crackdown has increasingly pitted
Armenians against one another. If authorities continue on
this course, it will only aggravate the tensions plaguing
Armenian society and increase the likelihood of further
unrest.


















PENNINGTON