The media were prohibited to broadcast live at the preliminary court hearing, which started Thursday in the Yerevan general jurisdiction court, presided over by Judge Gagik Poghosyan, in the criminal case into the tragic explosion that took place in Yerevan's Surmalu market on August 14 of last year.

The court allowed only ten minutes of video recording in the courtroom.

Three persons are defendants in the aforesaid criminal case: Vahagn Hovhannisyan, Garik Vardanyan, and Mher Margaryan. Hovhannisyan is under administrative supervision, Vardanyan has been banned from leaving Armenia, and Margaryan has been released on bail.

The injured parties of the case are dissatisfied with both the course of the preliminary investigation of the case and the decision of the National Security Service (NSS) investigator to announce the end of the criminal investigation.

A tragic explosion took place in the Surmalu market on August 14, 2022, as a result of which 16 people were killed, and one person was declared missing.

The criminal case that was launched into the fire that had occurred in the aforesaid market on April 6, 2021 was joined to the criminal case that s opened into the explosion that occurred in the market on August 14, 2022. The case was initially investigated by the Investigative Committee of Armenia, but recently it was transferred to the NSS.