Yerevan’s Arabkir and Kanaker-Zeytoun Administrative Court today decided to extend the pre-trial detention of activist Gevorg Safaryan by one month.

Safaryan is charged with assaulting a police officer on December 31 of last year during a scuffle when members of the New Armenia movement attempted to set up a Christmas tree in Yerevan’s Liberty Square.

Leaving the courtroom after the six-hour hearing, Safaryan’s lawyer Tigran Hayrapetyan told reporters that he had filed a petition to have the judge recused from the case.

“We found certain aspects of the examination strange. For instance, why is the case being examined at the Arabkir court, given that the alleged crime occurred in Yerevan’s Kentron (central) administrative district and that our petition to examine detention as a pre-trial measure was taken up by the Kentron Administrative Court,” Hayrapetyan said.

On February 15, the Kentron and Nork-Marash Court threw out Hayrapetyan’s petition regarding allowing Safaryan to being released from detention on bail.