The journalist, Hakob Karapetian, was reportedly beaten up by a masked man more than two weeks after criticizing the municipality on social media. Karapetian says that Avet Babayan, the acting head of the municipality’s department on public order, responded to the criticism with verbal abuse and threats of violence. He believes that his attacker acted on Babayan’s orders.
The official has been reluctant to comment on the allegations so far. He has said only that he never communicated with Karapetian through social media or otherwise. The journalist, who previously worked as former Yerevan Mayor Hayk Marutian’s spokesman, claims to have shared screenshots of their online correspondence with investigators.
Avinian’s spokesman, Hayk Kostanian, told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service on Wednesday that the mayor has issued a “stern reprimand” to Babayan and sent him on leave in connection with Karapetian’s claims. He did not elaborate.
Babayan was censured the day after eight Armenian press freedom groups strongly condemned the journalist’s beating and demanded that Avinian investigate his subordinate “regardless of whether or not the insults and threats directed at the journalist were related to the physical violence that followed them.”
In a joint statement, they also demanded that law-enforcement authorities identify not only the perpetrator but also the “possible mastermind” of the violence.
“As of today, until proven otherwise, seeing a connection between the threats and subsequent acts of violence is logical and should be considered a reasonable hypothesis,” they said.
According to the Armenian Interior Ministry, police arrested on Monday “one of the participants of the incident.” The suspect has still not been identified by investigators.