Yesterday, Aravot received a decision on the fact of impeding the professional activities of Nelly Babayan, a journalist of Aravot Daily and www.aravot.am website, during the National Assembly election signed by Colonel A. Gasparyan, the chief of the Mashtots Department of the Police of the Republic of Armenia. The police have decided to deny launching an investigation.
Let us note that on the day of the National Assembly election, May 6, a young man impeded Nelly Babayan’s journalistic activities at no. 5/11 polling station of the Davitashen administrative district, not allowing her to film. An article on that was uploaded to www.aravot.am website. Edik Baghdasaryan, the head of Investigating Journalists NGO, applied to the police to get clarification regarding the publication. Journalist Nelly Babayan gave an explanation to the police in regard to the publication.
The Police of the Republic of Armenia explained its decision sent to Aravot in the following manner, “Thus, while gathering evidence, it was discovered that as a result of an incident between journalist N. Babayan and the person whom she had mentioned and who had not been identified during the investigation, the latter’s deed lacked corpus delicti mentioned in Article 149 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Armenia, since the mentioned article provided for responsibility ‘…for preventing a representative of mass media to exercise his/her powers.’ Whereas in the given case, the unknown person didn’t know that N. Babayan was a journalist at first and when he found that out, he immediately returned the phone and left, thus, his deed lacks subjective and objective circumstances characteristic of the given crime.
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“Taking into account that the unknown person’s deed lacked corpus delicti, given the above mentioned and being guided by the requirements of Article 1, Section 2, Clause 2 and Articles 57, 181 and 185 of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Republic of Armenia,
WE HAVE DECIDED
1. To deny launching an investigation based on evidence gathered in pursuance of no. 10/3-2-1988 note received from the Republic of Armenia Police headquarters in accordance with Article 35, Sections 1 and 2 of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Republic of Armenia because of the lack of corpus delicti,
2. To send a copy of the decision to N. Babayan, a journalist of Aravot Daily, explaining to her at the same time her right to appeal it and the procedure of appealing,
3. To send a copy of the decision to the Republic of Armenia Police headquarters
4. To send the gathered evidence and a copy of the decision to the prosecutor of the administrative districts of Ajapnyak and Davitashen for checking its legitimacy.”
Lusine BUDAGHYAN
