16:32, 6 August 2019

In Yerevan, attackers on blogger face tougher charge

Students attack Narek Malyan, a video blogger, on March 4, 2019. Screenshot of the video https://www.facebook.com/restarttimes.am/videos/960188047522246/

The Prosecutor's Office of Armenia has toughened the charge brought against participants of the student movement who tried to throw blogger Narek Malyan into a garbage can. The case of an attempted kidnapping has been brought to court, investigators report.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on March 3, six members of the movement "Restart Times" seized video blogger Narek Malyan and tried to throw him into a garbage can. The General Prosecutor's Office classified the above actions as "an act of hooliganism committed by a group of persons."

The movement "Restart Times" assured that activists were not going to harm Narek Malyan. Members of the movement explain their colleagues' actions with the "logic of revolution," since "there are people not ready for changes" and "the Narek Malyan's place is at the landfill." The incident was preceded by a conflict over the resignation of the Rector of Yerevan State University. Narek Malyan did not support the initiative concerning the Rector's resignation, while the movement "Restart Times" arranges regular protests against the head of the university.

Six activists of the movement "Restart Times" were accused of trying to kidnap Narek Malyan, reported Arevik Khachatryan, the press secretary for the General Prosecutor's Office of Armenia. The defendants face four to eight years of imprisonment.

Let us remind you that on May 29, 2018, students went on strike with the demand for the resignation of Aram Simonyan, Rector of the Yerevan State University. Among the problems in the university, students mentioned the low quality of education, lack of academic freedom, lack of transparency in management, and inappropriate allocation of resources.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on August 6, 2019 at 11:53 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.