When asked by "Hetq" whether he thought the seven year prison sentence handed down by the court yesterday to Nikol Pashinyan was a bit severe, Armenian Republican Party MP Galust Sahakyan stated, "Those ten people wouldn’t have been killed if it weren’t for Pashinyan." MP Sahakyan added that Pashinyan was able to manipulate the crowds like some sort of religious mullah. "Yeah, the court could have handed down a lighter sentence but a crime was committed and the case rested with the courts," he argued. "I have never seen anyone who has been charged and sentenced state that they are innocent. They all claim that they are innocent. That’s why legal justice has various scenarios and avenues of appeal. If one enters the fray of struggle, all that crying and complaining is pretty uncalled for," the ruling party MP declared. When asked by reporters about violations against reporters in Armenia, MP Sahakyan stated that freedom of the press was quite extensive in the country and that one had to differentiate between "anarchy and freedom". "Let me put it this way," he argued, "What’s the difference between stabbing somebody with a knife or slandering him so viciously that the person has a heart attack and dies? It’s the same thing. We in Armenia do not have a culture of news reportage," MP Sahakyan argued.