On January 19 at the court of primary jurisdiction of Center and Nork-Marash communities of Yerevan the hearings of the case of assault on Arman Galoyan, the correspondent of “Haikakan Zhamanak” daily, continued. As it has been reported, the incident occurred on September 23, 2004, when the journalist was interviewing the owners of the trade stalls demolished around one of the Yerevan markets. The investigation identified one of the assaulters, impeding the work of the correspondent of “Haikakan Zhamanak”, to be the market supervisor Armen Vardanian. It also appeared that a month before the incident this same Armen Vardanian beat two Yerevan residents next to the same market. The two cases were united into one litigation, and Vardanian was charged on these two episodes: by Article 164 (“Obstruction of legitimate professional activities of journalist”) and 258 (“Public disorder”) of the RA Criminal Code. The defendant failed to be present at opening session of the trial on December 20, and the court ruled to bring him to court by force (see YPC Weekly Newsletter, December 17-23, 2004).
At the hearings of January 19 Armen Vardanian pleaded guilty on both episodes. The interrogation of the witnesses started, too.
The next session is scheduled for January 25.
