Defendant in balloon blast case sentenced to one year in prison
The Court of General Jurisdiction of Yerevan's Kentron and Nork-Marash administrative districts has announced the verdict in the notorious balloon blast trial.
The Court sentenced Serob Bozoyan, the only defendant in the case, to one year in prison. Bozoyan earlier pleaded guilty to a charge of negligence and apologized to the people who were injured during last May's mass explosions of balloons at Republic Square though his attorney announced that the organizers of the gathering had been warned about the possible blast.
Hundreds of gas balloons exploded in Yerevan's Republic Square on May 4, 2011, during an election campaign meeting organized by the ruling Republican Party of Armenia (HHK). The explosion was followed by fire, with melted rubber falling on the event participants. At least 154 people were hospitalized with serious burns and injuries. Some of them underwent plastic surgery. Later it was revealed that the balloons were filled with inflammable natural gas by several individuals in a Yerevan apartment. Bozoyan was one of them. He was soon arrested and charged with the production and sale of goods not meeting security standards and causing harm to two or more people.
