One of the alleged assailants of Armenian journalist Edik Baghdasarian, gave himself up to the police on November 26. Karen Haroutiunian refused to comment and his motives remain unknown, Paris-based Reporters sans Frontières has reported.
Very little is known about him or his accomplices in the brutal assault on the chairman of the investigative journalists’ association in Yerevan on the evening of November 17.
Three men set upon the editor of online magazine Hetq, as he was about to get into his car. Baghdasarian fought off his assailants until one of them hit him on the head with a stone. He was taken to hospital for treatment but has since returned home.
Armenian leaders have been visiting him to offer them support and on November 19, journalists, representatives of NGOs and students at the journalism faculty rallied in Yerevan between the prosecutor’s office and the presidency to protest against violence against journalists, the perpetrators of which are very rarely caught.
Sona Truzian, spokesman for the prosecutor’s office said on November 24 that a preliminary investigation opened under Article 113 of the criminal code (assault resulting in moderate to severe injuries) had led to one of Baghdasarian’s attackers being identified.
