Today the Court of First Instance of Center and Nork-Marash Communities of Yerevan chaired by Gagik Avetisyan brought in an acquittal in the absence of evidence in the Helsinki Association member Arshaluys Hakobyan's case. 

The prosecution came up with a motion to quash the criminal case. Hakobyan's case was going on since July 2009. Though restraint was changed and he was released, the criminal case was not quashed. The prosecution presented a motion to the court asking for time to continue the investigation of the case. However, as it became obvious today, the prosecution had used that time inefficiently and was obliged to come up with a motion to quash the case.

Hakobyan was charged with part 1 of article 316 of Criminal Code (use of violence against representative of state). He was arrested in the beginning of July 2009 and spent 4 months in prison.

Head of the Helsinki Association Mikael Danielyan believes there could be no other verdict since the prosecution itself was tired of the delays in the trial process.  

"I didn't know what they were looking for for such a long," he said. "They wanted to find something but couldn't, they didn't know how to close the case. Everything was so obvious."