Armenian News - NEWS.am presents a daily digest of Armenia's top news as of 07.08.2019:

·       The Prime Minister of Armenia, Nikol Pashinyan, on Tuesday evening declared—in Stepanakert—the 7th Pan-Armenian Summer Games open.

More than 5,300 athletes from 145 cities of 35 countries will compete for 11 days.

Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan, President of the Republic of Artsakh Bako Sahakyan, director of the National Security Service of Armenia as well as president of the Football Federation of Armenia Artur Vanetsyan, speaker of the National Assembly of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan, and several other officials were on hand at the opening ceremony of the 7th Pan-Armenian Summer Games.

Over 5,000 athletes and coaches walked through the stadium during the march of the participating sports delegations.

·       Pobeda airline confirmed that no flights to Gyumri have been canceled yet, although the airline has earlier stated that it will be terminating flights to Gyumri (Armenia) starting this winter as fuel is not filled enough in the airplanes at the airport in Gyumri.

The Civil Aviation Committee of Armenia told Armenian News-NEWS.am on Tuesday that the problem with flight termination at Pobeda Airlines has been solved.

“At the moment there are no canceled flights. In case of cancellation, information about this will be posted on the network,” Pobeda airline, in their turn, noted.

·       A young woman on Wednesday jumped off a bridge in Yerevan, the capital city of Armenia.

At 10:43 am, the 911 emergency hotline received a call informing that a person had committed suicide by jumping off the Great Bridge of Hrazdan, which is more commonly known as Kievyan Bridge.

A rescue squad and a crisis management team were dispatched to the scene.

It was found out that she was still alive.

The woman was hospitalized.

According to Arsen Grigoryan from ‘Armenia’ medical center, the condition of the 24-year-old woman who threw herself from the bridge in Yerevan is very critical as she has numerous fractures.

“Doctors are fighting for her life,” he said.

·       The former manager of a Wells Fargo branch in Glendale Hakop Zakaryan pleaded guilty on Monday to using his position to aid a $14-million money-laundering scam.

According to the Justice Department, Hakop Zakaryan, 34, will face a statutory maximum sentence of 30 years in federal prison. Zakaryan admitted in his plea agreement that he used his position as a bank manager in Glendale to “unfreeze” bank accounts that Wells Fargo had frozen because of suspected fraud.

To do so, Zakaryan called the bank’s loss prevention department and provided false information to unfreeze the bank accounts.

A total of 18 defendants, including Zakaryan and Glendale lawyer Arthur S. Charchian, have been charged in that scheme.

·       Armenian second President Robert Kocharyan’s lawyers held a press conference on Wednesday.

According to Aram Orbelyan, in addition to seven appeals to the ECHR, they are considering the possibility of applying to the UN Human Rights Committee and further domestic steps.

According to him, “nothing happens in the case of the Armenian second president Robert Kocharyan, and this is an obvious violation of human rights.”

Lawyers also said they want to get acquainted with the entire volume of materials on the case of March 1 events, when the then authorities of Armenia used force against the opposition members who were rallying in downtown Yerevan, leaving eight demonstrators as well as two servicemen of the internal troops killed in the clashes.

Aram Orbelyan focused on the fact that the author of the BBC article notes that the arguments are based only on the questions of the investigators, as there are no circumstances in the materials of the ex-president’s lawyers that indicate the participation in the tragic events of some unit that killed people.