The Investigative Journalists NGO (publisher of Hetq) and thirteen other media and civic organizations have signed a public statement calling for the immediate release of Levon Barseghyan, president of the Gyumri Journalists’ Asparez Club Council, who was arrested on July 27 at a demonstration outside the seized police building in Yerevan and later charged on suspicion of carrying a concealed weapon.

The statement also demands that authorities stop using violence against demonstrators and activists.