YEREVAN. – The Criminal Court of Appeal on Friday resumed the trial into opposition Armenian National Congress (ANC) activist Tigran Arakelyan. 

The questioning phase is in progress at the court. 

First to be questioned was journalist Ani Gevorgyan. She denied the police testimony that she was at the scene during the incident and had made video recordings.  

Hayk Gevorgyan, the person in charge of issuing Haykakan Zhamanak daily, was questioned, too. He noted that he had learned about the incident from journalist Vahagn Hovakimyan.   

The third witness, Vahagn Hovakimyan, told that one of his friends had called him on that day and said the red berets had beaten and detained the ANC activists.   

The defense will call other witnesses, too. 

As Armenian News-NEWS.am informed earlier, a general jurisdiction court had sentenced ANC activists Tigran Arakelyan, Artak Karapetyan, Sargis Gevorgyan, and Davit Kiramijyan to six, three, and two years, respectively, as a result of an incident that had occurred on August 9, 2011, in capital city Yerevan. The Criminal Court of Appeals had upheld this ruling, and therefore the activists’ attorneys had submitted to the Court of Cassation their objections to this verdict. As a result, six of the young activists were released on signature bond, whereas Arakelyan had remained under arrest.

Photo by Arsen Sargsyan/NEWS.am