YEREVAN. – Activist Hayk Kyureghyan has been sentenced to nine years in prison.

Kyureghyan, however, was not in the courtroom when the aforesaid judgment was announced on Tuesday,

Earlier, he was removed from the courtroom for not standing when the presiding judge had entered.

An unusual incident had occurred, on June 12, 2014 at the yard of a court in Armenia’s capital city of Yerevan, minutes before the start of the trial against activist Shant Harutyunyan. Hayk Kyureghyan, 31, had stood on top of a vehicle and holding an air pistol, fired shots at police officers, and injured several officers of the law. The police, however, had rendered him ineffective and detained him.

Kyureghyan was charged with hooliganism, and violence against the representative of the authorities.

The prosecution, on the other hand, had motioned for a fourteen-year prison sentence for Hayk Kyureghyan.