The Yerevan Court of First Instance has acquitted the former resident of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) who threw an apple at Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan in Yerevan.

In the final part of the verdict, the court noted as follows, in particular: “The existence of the elements of the crime indicted to Albert Nikolay Arustamyan defined in Part 1 of Article 297 of the Criminal Code of Armenia has not been proven. In essence, a verdict of acquittal was made. Additional hearings will be held at another [court] session.”

On August 23, 2024, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan had gone to visit his aunt and her daughter in their home Yerevan. Subsequently, when he had left their building, a person threw an apple at Pashinyan from the ninth floor of the opposite building. Nikol Pashinyan and his bodyguards had assumed that a grenade had been thrown at them and immediately had laid down on the ground.

Ultimately, Artsakh former resident Albert Arustamyan, 71, was arrested on suspicion of throwing the apple.

Arustamyan was charged, and a signature bond to not leave Armenia was selected as preventive measure against him.

Later, Albert Arustamyan had stated in an interview with a media outlet that he had not regretted what he had done.