Man charged with balloon blast appealing verdict
The only defendant in the notorious balloon case Serob Bozoyan, who was sentenced to one year in prison earlier in October, is disputing the verdict in the Court of Appeals, Bozoyan's Attorney Karen Manucharyan told A1+.
On October 17, 2012, the Court of General Jurisdiction of Yerevan's Kentron and Nork-Marash administrative districts sentenced Serob Bozoyan to one year in prison after finding him guilty of May 2011 balloon blast in downtown Yerevan.
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 228 were injured in the result. 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.
Bozoyan, 54, earlier pleaded guilty to a charge of negligence and apologized to the people who were injured during the mass explosions of balloons though his attorney announced that the organizers of the gathering had been warned about the possible blast.
