I also want 14 years’ imprisonment: People shout in courtroom
“Freedom to Hayk Kyureghyan,” people are shouting in the Court of General Jurisdiction of Yerevan’s Kentron and Nork-Marash districts where the trial in the case of Hayk Kyureghyan is underway. Kyureghyan is charged with hooliganism and using force against a representative of the state. A group of people are simultaneously holding an action outside the court. They are holding posters that read, “I also want 14 years’ imprisonment.” One of them has a toy gun in his hand like the one that Hayk had in his hand in July 2014. In the previous sittings, the prosecutor asked the court to sentence Kyureghyan to 14 years in prison. Hardly had the court hearing started when Judge Armen Bektashyan decided to interrupt the trial for 5 minutes after the attendees demand to see the defendant. Kyureghyan was not brought to the courtroom again. Bektashyan had banned his presence in the court sittings for 10 years for showing disrespect for the court. Kyureghyan was detained following an incident that occurred on July 12, 2014 before a trial of opposition Tsekhakron Party leader Shant Haroutyunyan and his friends. The young man climbed atop a car in a court yard and shot an air pistol off several times in the direction of the police to protest the way political trials are handled in Armenia. The young man climbed atop a car in a court yard and shot an air pistol off several times in the direction of the police to protest the way political trials are handled in Armenia. He is charged under Articles 258 and 316 of the Armenian Criminal Code.
