On October 11, 2004 the Court of First Instance of the Kotayk Marz (province) sentenced Gagik Stepanyan to six months in prison for physically assaulting photojournalist Mkhitar Khachatryan of the news agency PhotoLur and reporter Anna Israelyan of the newspaper Aravot. On August 24, 2004 Khachatryan and Israelyan were working on a report on how oligarchs and government officials have cut down forests to build villas in the resort area of Tsakhkadzor when they were attacked by several thugs, Stepanyan among them (See: Who is destroying the forests in Tsaghkadzor?). Stepanyan injured Khachatryan's neck and arm, and seized the memory chip from his still camera. According to the forensic examination, the photojournalist received medium bodily injuries and Anna Israelyan experienced prolonged stress after being verbally harrassed.

Mkhitar Khachatryan did not appear in court on October 11 th . He sent a note informing the court that since he hadn't been properly notified, he would not come to the courtroom, and requested that the court be content with making public his testimony given during the preliminary investigation. Defendant Gagik Stepanyan, who had threatened, as he beat Khatchatryan, to "break your camera and buy you a new one," was order to pay $250 to replace the memory chip. In his preliminary testimony, the photojournalist stressed that he had suffered psychological damage and demanded that his assailant be held liable. Anna Israelyan made a similar statement.

 

The court was scheduled to hear witnesses - the director of the Institute of Literature, Azat Yeghiazaryan, and an operative of the Tsakhkadzor Writers' House, Zhanna Balayan, but they too submitted requests in writing that the court in make public their testimony given during the preliminary investigation. Azat Yeghiazaryan confirmed that defendant Gagik Stepanyan had burst into the Writers' House and attacked Anna Israelyan and Mkhitar Khachatryan shouting, "Who do you think you are? You have no right to take pictures here. Do you know whose territory this is?" He noted that Stepanyan had had other young men with him, who had also harassed the journalists. Zhanna Balayan confirmed that Gagik Stepanyan had beaten Khatchatryan, and that Israelyan had been visibly shaking with fear.

Koriun Piloyan, a state prosecutor with the Office of the Prosecutor General of Armenia , considered the defendant's guilt proven-not only in committing hooliganism but also in preventing the journalists from performing their professional duties. "Although the defendant acknowledged the charges against him only in part, in his testimony during the investigation he admitted guilt," the prosecutor informed the court. Piloyan also drew the court's attention to the fact that such crimes against journalists have grown in number. "I believe that the courts must show a clear-cut attitude toward such criminal cases, especially so when the crime is directed at preventing a person from performing his or her professional duties," he added. The state prosecutor asked the judge to sentence the defendant to six months in prison and to impose a 100,000-dram (about $200) fine. He also presented documents stating that Stepanyan had been convicted in 1995 and in 1997 of illegal possession of arms and drugs.

Anna Israelyan's representative, Ruzan Minasyan, stressed that the defendant's allegation that he had been embracing his girlfriend under a tree when the photographs were taken was aimed at discrediting the journalists by trying to show that they had violated his privacy. Anna Israelyan noted that the investigation had been incomplete, and it would have been better to send the case for additional investigation to find out who had sent the defendant after them and what the defendant meant when he said, "You have no right to take pictures here. Do you know whose territory this is?" But since the journalists had no hopes of such revelations, they did not request an additional investigation.

The defendant refused to make a closing statement; he contented himself with cursing the journalist and, in general, during the trial, exhibited strikingly uncontrolled behavior.