Armenia’s civilian monitoring group, that visited the man arrested yesterday for firing shots outside a Yerevan court, reports that the individual declared that he was fully cogent during the incident and that he wanted to voice his demand that Shant Harutyunyan be set free.

“I conveyed my protest as I did because I believe that Shant Harutyunyan’s case should never have reached the courts, that he should be set free, and because I am against the unjust and corrupt court system,” declared the gunman according to the monitoring group.

According to the group, the man also said that he only fired in the direction of 4-5 male policemen and not female officers.

“I am an honorable person and have never in my life raised a hand against any woman and never will. Such behavior is the calling card of today’s police force and the way they denigrate people,” the gunman is said to have told the monitoring group who visited him in jail.

Members of the group said they noticed numerous injuries on the body of the gunman, identified as one H. Gyureghyan, but that he refused to make any statement on the matter, promising to talk about it at a later date.