Criminal Case Against Parliament Security Head for Preventing Journalist’s Work

The Prosecutor General decided to initiate a criminal case in regards to an incident near the Armenian National Assembly between A1+ journalist Marine Khachatryan and National Assembly Security Service head Karen Hayrapetyan, reports Pastinfo.am.

“On occasion of the incident that the journalist’s professional legal activities were violated, the criminal case based on the RA Criminal Code article 164, part 1 was accepted by the proceedings and preliminary investigation of the RA Special Investigation Service (SIS),” said SIS Media Department Mikayel Aharonyan.  

Earlier, the SIS had refused to initiate a criminal case for the attack against the journalist.

To recall, on September 9, at approximately 4:30, members of the “Counter-Attack” (Hakaharvac) art group organized a protest in front of the National Assembly entrance where they placed a poster saying “Hello Rob”. The NA’s Security Service head, Karen Hayrapetyan, bursted out of the gates and attacked the “A1+” journalist Marine Khachatryan and threw her video recording device. Then spoke in a rough tone and used informal language with an Epress.am journalist, when asked to comment on his work and state his position he stated, “What am I doing, like I know who she is (Marine Khachatryan).”