Yerevan Court to hear A1+ journalist's appeal on July 16 (video)
On April 22, the Special Investigation Service decided that the commander of the State Guard regiment battalion, Karen Hayrapetyan, had not impeded the profession activities of Marine Khachatryan, a journalist working for A1+ Company and decided to terminate proceedings due to lack of corpus delicti. Marine Khachatryan appealed the SIS decision on discontinuing proceedings in a Yerevan court. Based on the journalist’s appeal, the Court of General Jurisdiction of Yerevan’s Kentron and Nork Marash administrative districts started proceedings under Article 263and 290 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. The court is set to hear the appeal on July 16. On September 9, 2014, after members of the Hakaharvats (Counter Attack) street art group hung a banner reading “Hello Rob” (Rob referring to Armenia’s second President Robert Kocharyan) on the National Assembly’s main gate, the chief of the NA security Karen Hayrapetyan came out and tore down the banner. Then he hit A1+’s journalist Marine Khachatryan, who was covering the incident, on the arm, causing her to drop her recording device – iPad – to the ground. Karen Hayrapetyan then tried to hit the journalist for a second time but he missed her. Karen Hayrapetyan continued to hinder her work even after the journalist introduced herself.
