On March 1st 2011, Khachatryan had been arrested during a rally organised by the opposition Armenian National Congress party because of an incident with the police.
According to the police press release of March 14th, “… On March 1st 2011 around 18:00, at the Mashtots-Koryun crossroads, Samson Khachatryan did not obey legal demands made by police officers. He showed resistance and struck out, causing bodily harm to one of the policemen…”
On March 14th, a criminal case was filed against Khachatryan under part 1 of Article 316 of the Criminal code of the Republic of Armenia (use of physical force against an authority figure which did not cause harm). Khachatryan announced that he had hit a person in civilian clothing who had been insulting and using force against women.
The accused refused to testify in court. During the trial, victims and police witnesses announced that they had showed Khachatryan their police certification during the incident and that Khachatryan knew whom he was hitting. However, the court passed a verdict according to which Samson Khachatryan was found guilty under part 1 of Article 316 of the Armenian Criminal Code and was sentenced to 12 months of probation. According to article 70 of the Armenian Criminal Code, the court released Khachatryan on probation.
Verdict video is available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3BzgoyEklQ
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