A Yerevan court today dropped criminal charges against Helsinki Association member Arman Veziryan who was involved in a fist fight on April 30, 2012 while monitoring political campaigning activities in the run-up to the May 6 parliamentary election.

Veziryan had followed HAK campaign volunteer Davit Gasparyan distributing flyers to homes along Sedrak Sargsyan Street in Yerevan.

Sargsyan approached a home and, seeing the door ajar, tossed some leaflets inside. The home owner, hearing, raised the alarm and solicited the help of her neighbor Tigran Manoukyan, who was doing repairs on his house.

Manoukyan chased Gasparyan and accused him of throwing unwanted items into the house.

At this point, Veziryan intervened and he and Gasparyan got into a shouting match. Blows were exchanged; Gasparyan landing two and Veziryan, one.

The lower court referred to a decision by the Court of Cassation (Arevik and Tzovinar Sahakyan,; November 1, 2012) were the definition of a charge of “beating” was defined as two or more blows.

Thus the lower court dropped the charges against Veziryan and fined Manoukyan 30,000 AMD.