On October 26 Gagik Stepanian, convicted to six months' imprisonment for
having attacked on August 24 in Tsaghkadzor the correspondent of “Photolure”
photo news agency Mkhitar Khachatrian and obstructed the professional activities
of Mkhitar Khachatrian and the correspondent of “Aravot” daily Anna Israelian,
got an early release. As it has been reported, the sentence was made on October
11, 2004 by the court of primary jurisdiction of Kotayk region. Commenting on
this case, YPC made a supposition that the three-time convict Stepanian has a
chance to regain freedom quite soon, as the Armenian legislation permits - right
after the verdict came into force, since he had already spent one-third of the
sentence in custody (see details in YPC Weekly Newsletter,
October
8-14, 2004). Our supposition came true.