On July 27 of this year, at 9:30 a.m., the trans woman H.T. called the Right Side Human Rights Defender NGO and informed that at that moment the police were conducting a search in her apartment. H.T. also noted that according to the investigator, they are going to arrest her. As it became clear later, the apartment was searched to find drugs, but as nothing was found, the trans woman’s three phones for personal use, the computer, as well as all the money in the apartment, were confiscated.

We shall remind, that about two months ago, on June 11 of this year, the same trans woman was brutally beaten by two men in her apartment and her mobile phone was stolen at knifepoint.

Right after the call, the lawyers of the Right Side Human Rights Defender NGO went to the investigation department of the Kentron and Nork-Marash administrative districts of Yerevan, where the trans woman H.T. was taken after the search. The legal team of the NGO had a meeting with her and assumed her protection. A few hours later, H.T. was transferred to the Investigative Committee, where, after being interrogated in the presence of her defense attorneys, she was released at 4:25 p.m., on the grounds that the need to keep her in prison was no longer needed.

The legal team of the Right Side Human Rights Defender NGO is involved in both the previous and this case and will provide legal representation at all stages of the case.

The Right Side NGO follows the course of criminal cases involving Trans and LGBIQ individuals, consistently documenting and collecting cases of discrimination and violence, and will keep this case at the center of its attention, urging the RA Police to carry out a proper investigation.

 Jul 31, 2023 Armenia, Yerevan