On August 31 in Vanadzor in the court of primary jurisdiction of Lori region the trial on the case of employee of the press center of the Writers Union of Armenia, member of the Journalists Union of Armenia Theresa Asatrian started. According to the press release of June 2, disseminated by the Public Relations and Information Department of the RA General Prosecutor’s Office, Theresa Asatrian was detained on the charge of attempted cheating (cl. 2 p. 2 Art. 34-178 of RA Criminal Code) and involvement in bribery (cl. 1 p. 3 Art. 38-312 of RA Criminal Code). As reported in the press release of the General Prosecutor’s Office, on May 17, 2005 Theresa Asatrian provoked the notary of Vanadzor notary region Arusiak Azarian to give a bribe of $ 3,500 to prevent the submission to the court of the materials against the notary gathered by the RA National Security Service, and the publication of a revelatory article written by the journalist herself. On June 4 the court of primary jurisdiction of Center and Nork-Marash communities of Yerevan assigned arrest to be the preventive punishment of Theresa Asatrian. In July the RA Human Rights Defender, the Journalists Union of Armenia and Helsinki Committee of Armenia addressed the RA General Prosecutor Aghvan Hovsepian with a request to change the preventive punishment of Theresa Asatrian, taking into account her health condition and her two minor children (see YPC Weekly Newsletter, July 15-21, 2005). Yet the preventive punishment was left unchanged.
At the session of August 31 the notary of Vanadzor notary region Arusiak Azarian was interrogated, the court proceeded with the testimony of the witnesses.
