On July 2 Hayk Gevorgian, Chief Editor of “Haykakan Zhamanak” daily, received the decision of the RA Police Department of Investigation on Road Traffic Accidents regarding the withdrawal of the criminal proceedings, instituted against him with charges of running down. As the decision mentioned, the inquiry was dropped due to absence of corpus delicti.
As it has been reported, on February 3, 2012 Hayk Gevorgian (then the Managing Editor of “Haykakan Zhamanak” daily) was taken into custody to “Nubarashen” penitentiary. He was charged with Articles 242 (“Violation of the traffic safety rules and exploitation of vehicles”) and 244 (“Leaving the scene of an accident”) of RA Criminal Code. According to the RA Police, on January 13, 2012 at about 17.30 in Yerevan Hayk Gevorgian, driving the newspaper’s car, ran down the pedestrian Ashot Frangulian and leaved the scene of accident. Criminal proceedings were instituted upon the complaint of Ashot Frangulian on January 20; an arrest was selected as a measure of preventive punishment towards Hayk Gevorgian. On February 6 the measure of preventive punishment was changed by a written undertaking. At the February 7 press conference Hayk Gevorgian told about the details of the January 13 incident. The journalist particularly stated that he did not commit a run down and assessed the happening as a purposive action against him – an opposition journalist (see details in YPC Weekly Newsletter, February 3-9, 2012).
The journalist contested at the RA Criminal Court of Appeal the decision on his arrest, rendered by the court of general jurisdiction of Kentron and Nork-Marash administrative districts of Yerevan. On March 13 the second court jurisdiction revoked the appeal. In its turn, in end-April RA Court of Cassation upheld the ruling of the Court of Appeal. As Hayk Gevorgian informed YPC, he intends to address the European Court on Human Rights.
As regards the RA police decision on withdrawing the criminal proceedings, the journalist says that he will also contest it, since he believes that the charges were framed-up. “I would be delighted if the case was withdrawn due to absence of the crime per se, but not to the corpus delicti”, stressed the Chief Editor of “Haykakan Zhamanak”.
