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Yerevan Court Sentences Hayk Kyureghyan to Nine Years for Shooting Air Pistol

Zaruhi Mejlumyan

A Yerevan court sentenced Hayk Kyureghyan to nine years behind bars for firing an air pistol in the direction of police on July 12, 2014.

The defendant never heard the sentence read out loud by Judge Armen Bektashyan. Not following the judge’s demand that all stand during the declaration of the sentence, Kyureghyan was whisked from the courtroom.

Kyureghyan supporters weren’t present for the sentencing as well since Judge Bektashyan had banned them from the courtroom at the previous trial session for unruly behavior.

Kyureghyan was charged with hooliganism and using force against a representative of the state (RA Criminal Code Articles 258 and 316) in an incident that occurred on July 12 , 2014 during a trial of Shant Haroutyunyan and friends.

On that day, Kyureghyan climbed atop a car and shot an air pistol off several times in the direction of the police as a sign of protest over the way political trials are handled in Armenia.

(Shant Haroutyunyan and tens of other activists were detained in November 2013 before the start of a march in Yerevan entitled “The Revolution of Values”.)

Laura Petrosyan, the mother of Hayk Haroutyunyan (sentenced to 54 months in the Revolution of Values case), voiced her disagreement with the sentence by asking, “what about the real hooligans and murderers roaming our streets?”

Armenak Kyureghyan, Hayk's father, couldn’t say if they would be appealing the verdict. “Hayk makes those decisions,” said the father.

The state prosecutor had called for Kyureghyan to be sentenced to 14 years.

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