Prosecutor General's Office returns criminal case obstruction to journalist's activities to SIS
The Prosecutor General's Office has overturned the decision of the Special Investigative Service to dismiss the case filed for obstructing the professional activities of Marine Khachatryan, a journalist working for A1+ Company. In a press release issued on Friday, the Prosecutor General's Office said the SIS conducted the investigation with gross violations, it failed to recognize Marine Khachatryan as an aggrieved party though it had sufficient grounds for it. As a result, Marine Khachatryan was deprived of the right to exercise her rights enshrined in Articles 59 and 247 of the Criminal Procedure Code. Guided by Articles 21.4 and 56.2 of the Criminal Procedure Code, the Prosecutor General's Office has decided to annul SIS’s decision to discontinue the criminal proceedings. The criminal case has been remitted to the SIS for further investigation. On September 9, after members of the Hakaharvats (Counterblow) street art group hung a banner reading “Hello Rob” (Rob referring to Armenia’s second President Robert Kocharyan) on the National Assembly’s main gate, the chief of the NA security Karen Hayrapetyan came out and tore down the banner. Then he hit A1+’s journalist Marine Khachatryan, who was covering the incident, on the arm, causing her to drop her recording device – iPad – to the ground. A case was filed with the SIS regarding the incident but the latter quashed criminal proceedings against the security official who used violence against the journalist.
