Ara Sahatelyan Released from Detention

The Court of Cassation of Armenia today, on March 5, upheld the appeal of the defense against the decision of the first-instance court to detain Ara Sahatelyan, the former Chief of Staff of the National Assembly. He has been released.

It is worth noting that Sahatelyan was detained on February 21 by the decision of Judge Arpine Meliksetyan of the Yerevan General Jurisdiction Court. The court acknowledged that Ara Sahatelyan's arrest was unlawful, yet still made the decision to detain him.

Ara Sahatelyan is accused in relation to the Facebook fake account case of “Gagik Soghomonyan”. He faces charges under articles 226 (inciting national, racial, or religious hatred by an organized group), 226.2 (public calls for violence by an organized group, publicly justifying or promoting violence), and 307.4 (violating the rules for publishing or disseminating information during a state of martial law) of the Armenian Penal Code.

It should also be noted that co-founder of “Karyak Media” Karen Bekaryan, manager of the “International Center for the Development of Parliamentarism” NGO Mher Avagyan, and citizen Aram Sargsyan have a status of defendants in this case. Aram Sargsyan is also currently in custody.