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Police officers used excessive force against ex-mayor of Meghri, a town in Armenia’s Syunik Province, his lawyer Yerem Sargsyan said in the early hours of Monday morning.

In a public post on Facebook, he said a group of masked and armed officers jumped out of two minibuses outside the building of the General Department of the Criminal Police and shoved “dangerous offender” Mkhitar Zakaryan to the ground using excessive force, filmed the process and forcibly took him inside despite the fact that they had come to the police voluntarily in line with an arrangement reached with senior police officers previously.

“After persistent efforts, the lawyers were let in and during the further actions it was found out that the police officers had been preparing grounds for arresting Zakaryan with apparently illegal actions and falsifications for two days to stage this disgraceful mask show,” Sargsyan said, adding they have filed a crime report on the police illegalities.

“The arrest comes after the obviously false claims that the officers of the Meghri police department made numerous visits to Mkhitar Zakaryan's house, but due to the closed doors they were unable to hand over a summons by the investigator,” the lawyer said, adding, however, the officers deliberately did not hand over the notice to a member of Zakaryan’s family waiting for their visit at home.