Punishment demanded for Armenian speaker, MP for obstructing journalists’ activities

The Yerevan-based AMARAS expertise centre has appealed to Armenia’s Prosecutor General's Office regarding the expulsion of journalists from the building of the country's Parliament with physical force.

The statement came from the centre’s Co-Founder and CEO, lawyer Arsen Babayan this week, Caliber.Az reports, citing Armenian media.

“The centre demanded to start criminal proceedings and give a legal assessment of the infringements on journalists and operators of the news websites MediaHub.am and Yerevan.Today, Ani Gevorgyan and Suzi Badoyan, by MP of the Civil Contract [party] Kristine Poghosyan, Speaker Alen Simonyan, as well as the state security employees,” Babayan wrote in social networks.

The centre is sure that Pogoyan, Simonyan, and employees of the state security service interfered with the legal activities of journalists and caused slight harm to their health.

Earlier, a quarrel had aroused between the MP from the "Civil Contract" Kristine Poghosyan and the journalist of MediaHub.am Ani Gevorgyan in Parliament. The MP almost threw a phone at the journalist.

Afterwards, the state security officers forcibly took the journalist out of the Parliament building. Later, Speaker Alen Simonyan refused to answer questions from Yerevan.Today journalist Suzi Badoyan, stating that he did not respect her and would not answer her questions.