On the instructions of the Human Rights Defender, the HRD
staff continues to work in an emergency mode due to the ongoing protests and
assemblies.
The rapid response groups of the Human Rights Defender's
Office are in the police stations in order to visit the arrested persons and to
get acquainted with the state of ensuring their rights on the spot.
As of now, visits have been made to 7 police departments,
representatives of the Defender have had private conversations with more than
160 people, the grounds for depriving them of their liberty, the state of
ensuring their rights, and the rights of the deprived of their freedom have been
clarified.
The staff of the Defender continues to carry out
monitoring activities. Posts and press releases containing violence, calls for
violence and hate speech are also examined.
As a result of the implemented monitoring, a case was
recorded when a member of the National Assembly was apprehended by police
officers allegedly using physical force. Later, according to the clarification
received from the Police, the deputy was released from the police car. The
Defender emphasizes once again that the deputy of the National Assembly is
endowed with a special constitutional and legal status, the latter can be
deprived of his liberty according to a special procedure established by the
legislation. The Defender has referred to this issue many times, and considers
the existence of the mentioned practice to be worrisome.
The Defender emphasizes that it is necessary to introduce
a serious toolkit in the direction of guaranteeing the exclusion of the
aforementioned practice.
The Defender considers the use of disproportionate force
by the Police officer not conditioned by the need to detain a person under any
circumstances to be highly unacceptable. Each case of the use of
disproportionate physical force must be immediately properly assessed in order
to prevent the continuation of such cases.
Moreover, cases were recorded when the use of force
against a person continued in the conditions when the latter was already under
the control of police officers. The Defender considers the mentioned working
method to be inadmissible.
During the Human Rights Defender's monitoring and visits
to the Police Departments, it was recorded that there are many cases of
detention without presenting a legal demand, without clarifying the reasons and
grounds for detaining citizens, and without informing people about their
minimum rights.
Cases were also recorded when, regardless of the end of
the actions carried out against a person within the framework of administrative
proceedings, the persons continued to be kept in the police stations until the
3 hours defined by the law expired.
In this regard, the Defender especially emphasizes that
the above-mentioned 3 hours is the maximum period in which the Police can
deprive a person of his\her liberty within the framework of administrative
arrest. At the same time, before the expiration of that period, after the
completion of administrative actions with the participation of that person, he
or she must be released immediately, regardless of the fact that 3 hours have
passed from the moment of the actual arrest of the latter.
Clarifications will be requested from the competent
authorities within the scope of the competence of the Human Rights Defender in
all recorded cases.
At the same time, the Defender emphasizes that
guaranteeing the peaceful course of the assembly also implies compliance with
the requirements set by the legislation by the organizers and participants of
the assembly. It refers, inter alia, to abstaining from violence, calls for
violence, and expressions of hate speech during the assembly, which are also
obvious and problematic.
The Defender once again urges the competent state bodies
and the participants of the protest to ensure the peaceful course of the assembly.
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