Human Rights Watch has called on the Armenian government to release Gevorg Safaryan, a political activist arrested during a public gathering on January 1, 2016, and placed in pretrial detention pending an impartial investigation of the charges against him.

Police arrested Gevorg Safaryan at Yerevan’s Freedom Square at about 1 a.m. on New Year’s Day, amid a scuffle during a public event organized by members of the political opposition New Armenia Movement.

The authorities charged Safaryan with using violence against the police, and on January 3, a court granted a police investigator’s request to hold Safaryan in pretrial custody for two months.

“Given the minor nature of the incident, two months of pretrial custody is wholly unjustified,” said Giorgi Gogia, South Caucasus director at Human Rights Watch. “Pretrial detention should be a last resort, not the general rule, and only in cases where there is a well-founded fear that the person will evade justice or hinder the investigation.”

In a January 5 letter to Armenia’s prosecutor general, Human Rights Watch expressed concern about the charges against and pretrial detention of Safaryan and called for his release pending an investigation.

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