Today, the police lawsuit against the Chairman of the Gyumri “Asparez” Journalists Club Levon Barseghyan was heard at the Shirak Regional Administrative Court, presided by Judge Edward Nahapetyan. During Vladimir Putin’s visit to the capital, on December 2, Levon Barseghyan had participated in a mass protest against our country’s “conquering and concession of independence.” In its claim submitted to the court, the police finding that Levon Barseghyan had displayed an “aggressive” behavior and together with other attendees of the rally has failed to execute the legal requirement of the police and has blocked the Amiryan Street, has applied to court to impose an administrative fine of 50 thousand drams on him. In fact, in the conversation with us, Levon Barseghyan informed us that the police have filed a lawsuit against 80 rally attendees, later dropping about 30 lawsuits. Today, Senior Legal Adviser of the Main office of RA Police, lieutenant colonel Sona Melikyan was present in the court sitting as defendant. The latter objected to the video recording with rather strange reasoning. According to the woman, she does not want to have her photos or videos suddenly appear on social networks and her person becomes a subject of various discussions. “Not the content of the material but I become the cause of the comments. My experience of the last months comes to prove it,” said the police lieutenant colonel.
Levon Barseghyan countered her reminding that this case is of public significance. “On December 2, Serzh Sargsyan’s militia did not have the opportunity to oppress the Constitution, and now the police is unable to justify why it is against the video. The militia is serving the occupied regime, and not the people,” said Levon Barseghyan. However, the court rejected Levon Barseghyan’s motion. Levon Barseghyan submitted a motion to postpone the preliminary court sittings because his lawyers Artak Zeinalyan and Ani Vardanyan had attended other court sittings, not being able to attend this one. The police Lieutenant Colonel Sona Melikyan objected to this motion stating that she is too busy, and should attend 80 sittings, i.e. 8-9 sittings a day, and she “canna” (a low-register form of ‘can’) manage. Levon Barseghyan started to give a lesson of Armenian literary language classes, saying, “Armenian is the official language of the Republic of Armenia, and the plaintiff instead of saying “canna” should use “cannot”. So what if the police representative has arrived from Yerevan, and I had gone to Yerevan from Gyumri on December 2, and I was detained and taken to the police department. I insist on my motion. You were also absent at the previous court sitting, but we were patient.”
The Judge Edward Nalbandyan, in his turn, continued Mr. Barseghyan’s words, saying, “We are looking whether the motion is derived from the law or not, it not, your involvement has nothing to do here. Last time you were not present, whereas the defendant approached with understanding.” The trial was postponed to an indefinite date. And as to what had happened in Yerevan on December 2, please watch the video.
Nune AREVSHATYAN
