The Court of Appeal, chaired by Serzhik Avetisyan, today dismissed the motions by Nikol Pashinyan's attorneys and the prosecution but applied amnesty to the "Haykakan Zhamanak" editor-in-chief Nikol Pashinyan.

The court ruled to uphold a January 19 ruling made by the General Jurisdiction Court of Kentron and Nork-Marash Communities of Yerevan in which Pashinyan was sentenced to 7 years of imprisonment but granted him amnesty and halved his sentence.

Thus Nikol Pashinyan will stay in prison for another 3 years and 1 month.

Pashinyan's lawyer Lusine Sahakyan qualified the ruling of the Court of Appeal with one word - "outrageous".

Earlier the court chaired by Mnatsakan Martirosyan returned Nikol Pashinyan guilty by Article 225 of the Armenian Criminal Code (organization of mass disorders) and acquitted him by Article 316 (using violence against public agent).

Both sides Nikol Pashinyan's attorneys Lusine Sahakyan and Yervand Varosyan as well as the prosecution protested the verdict at the Court of Appeal. The former demanded to acquit their defendant, and the prosecution wanted Pashinyan to be convicted also by Article 316.