On June 30 “Syunyats Yerkir” disseminates a statement on the discontinuation of the litigation on the attack of the Chief Editor of the newspaper Samvel Aleksanian, committed on October 13, 2004.
As it has been reported, the incident occurred in the editorial office, where three men, one of them being the Chairman of “Syunyats Artsivner” (“Eagles of Syunik”) NGO Khachik Asrian, attempted to learn from Samvel Aleksanian why “Syunyats Yerkir” published critical articles on the activities of the Syunik region Governor and the Prime Minister of Armenia. Not getting to the end of explanations, Asrian hit the Chief Editor into the face with fist, and then applied the baton he had brought (see details in YPC Weekly Newsletter, October 8-14, 2004).
On the incident criminal proceedings were instituted on Article 258 of the RA Criminal Code (“Public Disorder”); the case itself was transferred to the court of primary jurisdiction of Syunik region. At the same time, in the opinion of Samvel Aleksanian, the preliminary investigation was conducted quite partially. “Having studied the materials, I had an impression that quite a differently incident was investigated”, he told YPC, stressing that a war is unleashed against him and his publication in Syunik region. Notably, on the early morning of April 1 another incident occurred – the car of the Chief Editor was burned, qualified by him as another action of the local authorities (see details in YPC Weekly Newsletter, April 1-7, 2005).
As the statement of “Syunyats Yerkir” above informs, on June 24 the court of primary jurisdiction of the Syunik region ruled to discontinue the litigation on “bandit attack on October 13, 2004 on the editorial office of ‘Syunyats Yerkir’ by three mercenaries”, despite the fact that in the course of the trial “the court proved the fact of the crime committed by one of the defendants”. “The grounds for this court ruling were, as specified in the resolution, the change of the situation. The main circumstance that affected the changed situation, judging from the resolution, was the decoration of one of the criminals with a medal, invented by organization he himself heads and distributed in this region by kilograms”, the statement of newspaper says. It is further said that after the start of the hearings “Syunyats Yerkir” had three times challenged the judge, these motions being refused all the time, for this reason it boycotted the subsequent sessions.
On June 28, the statement says, “Syunyats Yerkir” challenged the court ruling with the RA Court of Appeals.
