At Friday's hearing, the court of Goris, Armenia, partially granted the defense’s motion with respect to the re-elected yet still imprisoned mayor of the city, Arush Arushanyan.

In particular, the court decided to allow Arushanyan’s close relatives to visit him, but maintained the ban on his telephone communication.

"As for the [defense’s motion to] transfer [him] to the Goris penitentiary, the court does not consider it expedient at the moment, taking into account, first of all, the intensity of the court hearings due to the workload of the court. That is, the hearings are scheduled at this phase with quite a long interval, and at the moment there is no need for Arush Arushanyan to be in the area where the court is located to ensure his attendance [to the hearings]," the presiding judge added.