A short video posted by journalist Suzy Badoyan on social media on Tuesday showed the officer, Hayk Hakobian, slapping, threatening and swearing at a middle-aged man described by her as the father of a criminal suspect.
The Armenian Interior Ministry was quick to react to the release of the embarrassing video apparently shot in October. It said Hakobian has been suspended pending investigation.
The policeman was detained on Thursday on charges carrying between four and eight years in prison. A Yerevan court moved him to house arrest on Friday. Daniel Ioannisian, a civic activist, said law-enforcement authorities were too slow to launch the criminal proceedings.
“He should have been arrested immediately so that he couldn't have any influence on the witnesses,” Ioannisian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
It is not yet clear who filmed the violent interrogation which was presumably witnessed by other police officers. None of them has been suspended or prosecuted so far.
“Those present in that room should be brought to justice while the [indicted] police officer's immediate superior should be fired,” said Ioannisian.
Ara Gharagyozian, a human rights lawyer who has dealt with police brutality, cautioned that the criminal investigation will not necessarily be speedy and objective. Such cases in Armenia often drag on for years, explained Gharagyozian.
“For example, I know one such case: a torture at a police station in Ijevan that happened eight years ago,” he said. “The alleged torturer has twice been acquitted. The case is now again in the Court of Appeals.”
Human rights groups say that ill-treatment of criminal suspects remains widespread in Armenia despite sweeping law-enforcement reforms promised by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s government. Police officers are still rarely prosecuted or fired for such offenses.
The Interior Ministry reported that 30 officers were fired for various reasons last year. It did not say how many of them, if any, were accused of torture.