Sargis Hovannisian, who runs the State Protection Service (SPS), was approached by a cameraman and a reporter for the news website Mediahub.am on May 2 as he apparently issued orders to security forces confronting opposition protesters at a major street intersection.
Videos circulated online showed Hovannisian shouting at the female reporter, Nare Gevorgian, before hitting her microphone. Gevorgian said he also kicked the cameraman, Arman Gharajian, during the incident strongly condemned by Armenian media groups.
Responding to the uproar, prosecutors ordered the Investigative Committee to look into the incident and determine whether Hovannisian broke the law.
In a statement issued late last week, the committee cleared Hovannisian of any wrongdoing. It put the blame on the journalists, saying that they interfered with the high-ranking officer’s work and ignored his legitimate orders to stop filming him and asking him questions.
Gevorgian on Monday denounced the Investigative Committee’s decision as “ridiculous” and said she will challenge it in court.
“Our live stream and footage represent complete evidence of a crime,” the journalist told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
Armenia - Journalist Nare Gevorgian speaks to RFE/RL, June 13, 2022.
Hovannisian, whose agency provides bodyguards to Pashinian and other senior state officials, was already caught on camera kicking an opposition protester in Yerevan last year. He was not prosecuted or subjected to disciplinary action.
Opposition leaders have questioned the legality of Hovannisian’s presence at anti-government demonstrations, arguing that the SPS’s powers do not include crowd control. Some of them have accused the SPS chief of ordering riot police to beat up opposition supporters demanding Pashinian’s resignation.
Videos posted on social media in recent weeks showed some police officers kicking and punching protesters arrested by their colleagues. None of those officers is facing criminal proceedings.
Law-enforcement authorities have instead arrested and pressed assault charges against more than three dozen participants of the Armenian opposition’s “civil disobedience” campaign launched on May 1.