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Armenian Editor Blames Georgia Police Official For Assault

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  • Armenian Editor Blames Georgia Police Official For Assault

    ARMENIAN EDITOR BLAMES GEORGIA POLICE OFFICIAL FOR ASSAULT
    Tatevik Lazarian

    http://www.azatutyun.am/content/article/ 2029364.html
    30.04.2010

    Armenia -- Journalist Argishti Kivirian at a press conference,

    Argishti Kivirian, an Armenian media editor who was badly beaten
    in Yerevan last year, accused on Friday an ethnic Armenian police
    official in Georgia of masterminding the still unsolved assault.

    Kivirian, 37, was attacked outside his apartment in the city center
    in the early hours of April 30, 2009. He was rushed to hospital and
    kept in intensive care for several days. The attackers apparently
    used wooden sticks to inflict serious injuries on his head and body.

    The criminal investigation into the incident was initially conducted
    by the Armenian police under a Criminal Code clause that deal with
    violent attacks resulting in "light injuries." A resulting media
    outcry led Armenia's National Security Service (NSS) to take over
    the inquiry and essentially back the Kivirian family's belief that
    the attack was a murder attempt.

    The NSS arrested two men, identified as Vladik Serobian and Gurgen
    Kilikian, on related charges in July. According to Kivirian, they
    both were released from pre-trial custody last month.

    An NSS spokesman declined to confirm or deny this when contacted by
    RFE/RL's Armenian service on Friday. Nor did he agree to divulge any
    details of the probe, saying that it is still not over.

    Speaking at a news conference held on the first anniversary of the
    incident, Kivirian pointed the finger at Samvel Petrosian, the police
    chief of the Akhalkalaki district in southern Georgia mainly populated
    by Armenians. He argued that his Armenia Today and Bagin online news
    services repeatedly accused Georgian authorities and the Akhalkalaki
    police in particular of unleashing repressions against local Armenian
    activists campaigning for the region's greater autonomy.

    Petrosian was personally blamed for the 2008 arrests of some of those
    activists. Three of them were subsequently tried and given lengthy
    prison sentences on controversial charges.

    Kivirian, who is a native of Georgia's breakaway republic of Abkhazia,
    alleged that Serobian and Kilikian, the apparently freed suspects,
    met Petrosian and received clear instructions from him two days before
    the April 2009 assault. He also claimed that Serobian is related to
    the Akhalkalaki police chief.

    "I have no personal enemies. And so I link [the attack] only with my
    journalistic activities," said the editor.

    Kivirian went on to question the Armenian authorities' commitment to
    solve the case. "The presidential press service is saying that the case
    is under the president's strict control. Were those two individuals
    set free as a result of that strict control?" he asked with sarcasm.

    "Some time later, this criminal case will be suspended and put into
    a drawer," he added.

    Kivirian's beating was one of the most serious instances of violence
    ever committed against Armenian journalists. It was condemned by
    more than a dozen Armenian non-governmental organizations involved
    in media freedom and human rights advocacy. They said it was made
    possible by the authorities' failure to punish the perpetrators of
    previous attacks on journalists.
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