The prosecutors asked a court Monday in Yerevan sentences ranging from 4 years to 8 ½ years in prison against 13 men, one of them is 15 years old, to have clashed with riot 
police during an anti-government protest last November.
The defendants were part of several dozen demonstrators who tried to march to the offices of President Serzh Sargsyan to the “revolution” in the words of their leader, Shant Harutyunyan. Police used force to stop the armed group sticks and firecrackers deafening as he began to move toward the presidential palace. Harutyunyan and a dozen other men were arrested on the spot.
Shahen, the 15 year old son of Harutyunyan, was charged in the case in April, but not incarcerated. He was tried with other activists arrested June 12 All but one of them, pleaded not guilty to charges of serious disturbance of public order and resisting arrest.
Throughout the trial Harutyunyan and his friends said they were persecuted for political reasons. They adopted a defiant after hearing demanded severe punishment against them by the prosecutor Gevorg Gevorgian.
Gevorgian requested a sentence of seven years in prison for Harutyunyan, a nationalist prominent activist, 5 years in prison for his minor son. Harutyunyan took his son in his arms and kissed him on hearing the sentences demanded by the Armenian authorities.
“My father asked me to stay in good spirits,” said the teenager told the Armenian service of RFE / RL (Azatutyun.am) thereafter.
The prosecutor asked the court to impose the longest sentence, eight and a half years in prison, Vahe Mkrtchyan, a close friend of Harutyunyan. Another defendant, Albert Margaryan, faces a demand for eight years in prison.
“We’re lucky that there are more than capital punishment,” said Hayk Harutyunyan with sarcasm, another man accused, hearing a sentence of six years was sought against him. “A slave should not be at the helm of power,” he added.