YEREVAN. – The Yerevan Court of First Instance has granted the motion to arrest Armen Tavadyan, the owner of 5th Channel 5 TV of Armenia. Tavadyan's lawyer Hovhannes Khudoyan said this in a conversation with journalists today.

The lawyer also said that the court had denied their appeal against the legality of Tavadyan's detention.

"The court denied our appeal as to the lawfulness of the detention, granted the investigator's motion and decided to arrest Armen Tavadyan for two months," he said. “Once we get familiarized, understand the reasoning of the decision, we will definitely appeal. Armen Tavadyan will be taken to the detention center and then to prison.

Armen Tavadyan was detained in connection with the case of Varuzhan Mkrtchyan, a supporter of Armenia's second President Robert Kocharyan. Mkrtchyan has been charged under the Criminal Code with bribing a witness or an injured party to give false testimony on a crime committed by a criminal group. According to police, Varuzhan Mkrtchyan had called one of the victims of the March 1, 2008 events to his office and proposed to this person to decline from the victim's status and the testimony given and not go to court hearings, saying he was ready to pay this person the money the state would provide as financial aid.