Another court to hear A1+ journalist’s appeal (video)
The Court of General Jurisdiction of Yerevan’s Arabkir and Kanaker-Zeytun administrative districts will hear A1+ journalist Marine Khachatryan’s appeal. Today Judge Mnatsakan Martirosyan made such a decision. Today the Court of General Jurisdiction of Yerevan’s Kentron and Nork Marash administrative districts has heard A1+ journalist Marine Khachatryan’s appeal against the decision of the SIS, which on April 22 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. Before the publication of the decision Mnatsakan Martirosyan inquired what the Court of General Jurisdiction of Yerevan’s Kentron and Nork Marash administrative districts can do, when the investigator works in another district. Marine Khachatryan’s representative Olga Safaryan noted, that the position of the prosecutor is illegal and asked to restore the rights of Marine Khachatryan. Ashot Melikyan, President of Committee to Protect Freedom of Expression, thinks that the Judge didn’t make such a decision by chance, “It is a case, which has received wide publicity.” 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.
