YEREVAN. – The charge laid against Shant Harutyunyan is commuted, and now he is charged with hooliganism by the use of weapons, or objects used as weapons, the Police News Service informed Armenian News-NEWS.am.

The initial charge of dangerous violence against the life, or health, of a representative—i.e., the police—of the authorities is dismissed.   

The new charge specifies and imprisonment for four to eight years.

Attorney Inesa Petrosyan had informed that the corpus delicti for the initial charge was not proved. 

The investigation into the case will be completed shortly.

The United National Initiative leader and activist Shant Harutyunyan who heads a nationalist party, and who had announced about starting a revolution, on November 5, 2013—and with close to several dozen supporters wearing Guy Fawkes “Anonymous masks”—had started a march toward the Presidential Palace, but the police had stopped the march.

As a result, there was a scuffle and explosions, and the police detained 38 activists, including Harutyunyan and his son. Subsequently, 20 of them, including Harutyunyan, were arrested, charges were laid against six of them and, consequently, they were incarcerated. As a result of the melee, sixteen people, including eight police officers and the Armenian News-NEWS.am reporter, were injured.