Illegal Searches and Seizures
Members of Armenia’s National Security Service (NSS) raided the apartment of Nigol Pashinyan early yesterday morning, March 5th, and spent several hours searching the premises.
According to their oral statement they were looking for Nigol Pashinyan, who was being sought by law enforcement.. When Mr. Pashinyan’s wife, Anna Hakobyan, asked to see their search warrant, she was told by the NSS officers that they had the legal right to search the apartment without one. After not finding Mr. Pashinyan in the apartment the officers, in the presence of the Chief of Criminal Investigations of the Central Division of the Police Department, camped out in the apartment for about four hours. Before leaving they compiled an account of their visit that Anna Hakopyan refused to sign.
On March 3rd, NSS employees searched the apartment of Karapet Rubinyan, a former Vice-Speaker of the National Assembly. After finding nothing of an incriminating nature they took Mr. Rubinyan into custody by force and without any court warrant. He was arrested under the authority of a Special Criminal Task Force and according to Article 300 of the Criminal Code that deals with the usurpation of the reigns of the government.
For the past several years Mr. Rubinyan had not engaged in politics. In 2008 he began to work at Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s pre-election campaign headquarters in the Shengavit district of Yerevan. Mr. Rubinyan considers himself to be a ‘political prisoner’ and has declared to be going on a hunger strike.
