On April 11 the RA Administrative Court started hearing the dispute between
the Board Chairman of “Asparez” Journalist’s Club of Gyumri Levon Barseghian
and the Gyumri Police Department. As it has been reported, on March 2 during
a rally in Gyumri Levon Barseghian was detained and taken to police station
where he was kept for more than five hours. Further on the Gyumri Police Department
addressed the court to hold the journalist accountable on Article 182 of the
RA Code on Administrative Offences (“Intentional Failure to Obey a Legal
Order or a Demand of a Police Officer or a Military Serviceman”). Levon Barseghian,
on his behalf, filed a counter-claim, demanding to reject the police suit and
to nullify the act of his detainment.
At the hearings on April 11 both parties filed motions to involve several police
officers as witnesses. Levon Barseghian also proposed a reconciliatory agreement:
the parties should withdraw their suits, and the Deputy Head of the Shirak Regional
Department of the RA Police, who had ordered to detain the journalist, should
make a public apology to him. The judge offered the parties time to submit the
list of witnesses after which the session adjourned.
