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A ruling of the Yerevan Court of General Jurisdiction to arrest Ara Saghatelyan, former chief of staff of the National Assembly, will be examined at the Court of Appeals. As Saghatelyan's lawyer Hakob Yenokyan told Panorama.am, the court has accepted the case for consideration and later this evening it will be assigned to a judge. 

"I visited Mr Saghatelyan yesterday. His mood was high and denies any wrongdoing. And there is no wrongdoing to admit until we restore justice through the Court of Appeals. We have great expectations from the Court," Yenokyan said. 

The lawyer informed that the restriction for family members to visit Saghatelyan was lifted, in particular for the wife and 10-year-old son. "The petition filed my me was granted by the investigator," said Yenokyan. 

The lawyer pointed to the accepted practice at the NSS Investigative Department where detainees have restricted communication with people. In case with Saghatelyan, this applied to his family members as well. "No reason was indicated except only for the purpose purpose of ensuring investigative actions," said Yenokyan. 

To remind, former chief of staff of the National Assembly,  Ara Saghatelyan was detained by the National Security Service (NSS)   Saghatelyan was charged with allegedly provoking racial, religious or ethnic hostility, public calls for violence and justifying or propagating violence  and violation of the rules of publishing or spreading information during the martial law.  

Saghatelyan has played an active role in the information war against Azerbaijan for many years, making the war crimes committed by Azerbaijan available to the international media.

Many experts have labeled the case against him as “political persecution”, considering him a political prisoner.