Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly-Vanadzor

In January 2025, V.M., a resident of Lori region, applied to Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly-Vanadzor for the protection of his rights. He had been subjected to physical violence by officers of the Lori Regional Department of the RA Ministry of Internal Affairs Police in order to extract a confession. Failing to achieve their goal, the police officers released V.M. the following day without any legal justification.  

Ani Chatinyan, a lawyer and a coordinator of the Legal Department of HCAV, took on the defense of V.M.'s rights. On January 15, 2025, A. Chatinyan filed a complaint with the First Instance Court of General Jurisdiction of Lori Region, seeking to have the decision to detain V.M. recognized as unlawful. The court upheld the complaint on January 24. 

Since being subjected to torture by police officers on January 10, V.M., now recognized as a victim, has been interrogated only once. The investigator in charge of the case presented him with the findings of a forensic medical examination. Disagreeing with the conclusion, V.M.'s representative, the Organization’s lawyer Samson Galstyan, filed a motion to conduct a second forensic medical examination. However, to this day, neither the victim nor the representative has received a decision regarding the motion. 

Five months after the incident, urgent and critical investigative and procedural actions—such as confrontational interrogations and necessary expert examinations—have still not been carried out.

Thus, we note that the reasonable timeframes for the investigation of this case have already been violated, and the case-laws set by the European Court of Human Rights are being ignored.