YEREVAN. – The Haykakan Zhamanak (Armenian Times) newspaper releases a statement on the same newspaper journalist and editor Hayk Gevorgyan’s arrest on Friday.

“Armenian famous journalist, responsible for the edition of the newspaper, Hayk Gevorgyan was arrested and transferred into Nubarashen penitentiary on Friday.

Armenian police claims he was wanted since Jan. 23 for violating traffic rules. According to the Criminal Code, a human can be wanted if his/her place of existence is unknown and he/she escapes the investigation, while Gevorgyan went to work, participated in press conferences before and after Jan. 23.

Based on this, the newspaper assumes that Gevorgyan’s arrest is linked to his journalistic career and carries revenge character.

The newspaper staff declares that his arrest is an illegal and mean action by the Armenian police and carries revenge character aiming to stop his journalistic career. The ruling authorities aim to close the newspaper by scaring all those journalists who have no physiologic problems with publishing information on any representative of the corrupted authorities,” the release reads.