Was the situation reported or not? How the Ministry of Internal Affairs lies regarding the Hammer driver case

The Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Armenia provided clarifications regarding some of the wordings contained in the report of the International Criminal Investigations Training Assistance Program (ICITAP) of the US Department of Justice regarding the well-known incident with the Hummer SUV in the Republic Square on February 10 of this year, which, however, contradict their later response to our inquiry.

It should be reminded that the driver of a Hummer, showing clear disrespect towards the public, drove the car on Abovyan street facing the traffic, did not obey the “stop” signal of the police officers, continued to drive the car on Aram, Pavstos Byuzand, Vazgen Sargsyan, Agatanghegos, Tigran Mets, Amiryan streets, including in the pedestrian area, intentionally damaging 8 civilian cars parked on the streets. Then he drove towards the non-traffic area opposite the Government Building, where, continuing to disobey the lawful orders of the Patrol Service, he ran over a Patrol Service employee and intentionally damaged 3 Patrol Service vehicles.

Eventually, he left the car under one of the archways of Agathanghegos street, and ran away. Later, however, the police managed to find and arrest the driver, a criminal case was initiated.

Thus, referring to the ICITAP observation that upon noticing the violation of the traffic rules, the police officers started the pursuit on foot and duly reported to the Operational Management Center, the Ministry of Internal Affairs notes that according to the evidence obtained during the official investigation, the patrol officers did not report anything to the Operational Management Center.

In another response addressed to the Fact Investigation Platform the other day, among the actions taken by the patrol officers regarding the violation of the rules by the driver of the Hummer SUV, it was noted that on February 10, around 10:45 p.m., the patrol officers reported the crisis situation to the Operational Management Center of the Ministry of Internal Affairs via radio communication.

Thus, the Police made a false statement in the clarification related to the ICITAP report, claiming that after the violation by the Hummer driver was recorded, the patrol officers did not report it to the Operational Management Center, while the response sent to us even states at what time the patrol officers reported the situation to the OMC.

Sevada Ghazaryan

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