ArmInfo. The State Revenue Committee of Armenia responded to reports about the case of a beating of Armenian citizens at the Bavra checkpoint. Earlier, human rights defender Karapet Poghosyan reported that a case of beating of citizens by customs service officers was recorded..
On his page on the social network Facebook, Poghosyan wrote that Armenian citizen L. Gasparyan contacted him and said that a few hours ago, when crossing the Armenian-Georgian border through the Bavra checkpoint, 25 customs officers beat his 65-year-old father, his brother, and then himself.
"L. Gasparyan is a disabled person of the third group. There were also minor children in the car. The fight started because there were several kilograms of food in the car," Poghosyan wrote.
The SRC reported that Gasparyan regularly crosses the border with Georgia and then imports various types of household goods for what he claims is personal use. "Very often Gasparyan and those accompanying him are drunk and behave aggressively and inappropriately. The latter demonstrate this behavior intentionally in order to hide the goods subject to declaration," the agency notes.
"On January 15, 2024 the aforementioned citizen and 7 other accompanying citizens, 2 of whom are female, entered the customs control zone in an inebriated state with inappropriate and aggressive behavior. For a long time, they uttered curses in the presence of other citizens, attempted to damage state property, disrupted the normal work of the customs office, and did not comply with the legal requirements of the customs officer.
After numerous unsuccessful attempts to call the indicated persons to order and take control of the situation, customs officers took them out of the customs control zone, during which the indicated person resisted. The State Revenue Committee has taken appropriate steps to conduct a comprehensive investigation of the case and conduct an internal investigation."