On December 8, at about 21.30 in one of the highway tunnels of downtown Yerevan, where a major accident hade happened, photojournalist Gagik Shamshian was attacked. According to Gagik Shamshian, noticing that he is shooting the site, three young men, who were in one of the crashed cars, assaulted and swore at him, trying to take away the photocamera. As Shamshian emphasized, he managed to keep the camera and even shoot the assaulters and the car number. The skirmish was over after the intervention of the police, who had arrived to the site.
As the communique of the RA Police, stored on www.police.am later on December 8, reported, the young men were detained and conveyed to police. The men “have displayed outmost disrespect to the citizens around, have disturbed the public order for over 15 minutes, cursed, gave blows and caused physical injuries to the photojournalist Gagik Shamshian, who was carrying out his professional duties”, the RA Police clarified.
As Gagik Shamshian informed YPC Kentron Police Department of Yerevan has instituted criminal proceedings upon the case on Articles 164 (“Impeding legitimate professional activities of a journalist”) and 258 (“Public disorder”) of RA Criminal Code.
