Today, Kentron and Nork Marash General Jurisdiction Court rejected the appeal of ChI journalist, Ani Gevorgyan, about the decision of SIS on dismissing the lawsuit against the police officers hindering the work of the journalist on February 12. Ani Gevorgyan claims to file a criminal case against the police officer for obstructing her work and exerting violence against her. The Court substantiated its rejection with the circumstance that the appeal was groundless. After the court trial, investigator Arshaluys Minasyan refused to answer the questions, and saying «goodbye» walked away.
As told by the journalist, during the pretrial, the investigator has ignored a number of important videos. «The facts of providing me with a lawyer and my demands for permitting the lawyer standing outside to come in are recorded by the police, and I have mentioned it in my testimony, while the investigator was not interested in it at all. When the investigator seized the memory cards of my camera, an examination was scheduled to determine whether the contents of the recording are subject to recovery, but, as I said, he was not interested in the USB flash cards of the police, and the investigator was satisfied only with verbal allegations of the police that the recordings made in the police department were innocent and they had deleted them. But if the investigator were interested in finding out the reality, he was to set up an examination and detect whether it was possible to restore the recordings.»
Today’s court decision, as Ani Gevorgyan is convinced, proves that the journalist’s rights are not protected in Armenia. «It can be concluded that the violence against journalists and obstructing its work is not a criminal offense in Armenia.» The journalist is planning to appeal the verdict.
Arpine SIMONYAN
