By Robert Zargarian
YEREVAN (Azatutyun) — A 71-year-old resident of Yerevan is facing charges carrying up to two years in prison after hurling an apple towards Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan in an apparent protest against his policies.
Pashinyan was targeted by the man, Albert Arustamyan, on the evening of August 23, as he was about to meet with a relative living in the city’s northern Zeytun district. The apple was thrown from an apartment block located in the same neighborhood. It reportedly did not hit Pashinyan or any of his bodyguards.
“Eyewitnesses (neighborhood children) say that Nikol Pashinyan and his bodyguard thought a grenade was thrown in their direction and immediately laid down on the ground,” Arustamyan’s lawyer, Roman Yeritsyan, claimed in a weekend Facebook post.
Police detained Arustamyan hours after the incident. According to Yeritsyan, his two daughters and a granddaughter were also forcibly taken to a nearby police station for questioning.
The suspect, who is a native and former resident of Nagorno-Karabakh, was on Sunday charged with hooliganism and released from custody pending investigation. The crime attributed to him is punishable by heavy fines and/or a prison sentence of up to two years.
