YEREVAN. – Shant Harutyunyan no longer has a public defender, and he will defend himself at court.   

Attorney Garik Malkhasyan, who had been appointed Harutyunyan’s public defender, told the aforesaid to Armenian News-NEWS.am.   

Malkhasyan noted that he received the investigator’s decision on Harutyunyan’s petition to forego a legal defender.    

The attorney also informed that a forensic psychiatric examination is commissioned to determine whether or not Harutyunyan has psychological issues.

To note, United National Initiative leader and activist Shant Harutyunyan who heads a nationalist party, and who had announced about starting a revolution, on November 5—and with close to several dozen supporters wearing Guy Fawkes “Anonymous masks”—started a march toward the Presidential Palace, but the police stopped the march. As a result, there was a scuffle, and the police detained 37 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, about a dozen people, including police officers, were injured.