SHAREHOLDER OF ROYAL ARMENIA UNDER ARREST

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[12:56 pm] 03 October, 2007

Gagik Hakobian, the leading shareholder in the Royal Armenia coffee
company, was detained at Zvartnots airport the moment he returned
from Spain.

Gagik Hakobian had left Armenia to undergo medical treatment in Spain
shortly after his release.

Prosecutors challenged the sensational acquittal at the higher Court
of Appeals which opened hearings on the case in late August. Hakobian
failed to attend any of the Appellate Court hearings. The Court
of Appeals ordered law-enforcement authorities to locate and again
arrest the businessman, dismissing his assurances that he will return
to the country after completing the treatment.

Armenia’s human rights ombudsman, Armen Harutyunyan, had petitioned
the Court of Appeals last week to review the preventive punishment
for the Royal Armenia owner.

Obviously, the court had rejected the Ombudsman’s petition.

At 11:00, September 11, the RA Appellate Court will continue hearings
on Royal Armenia.

Gagik Hakobian, and Royal Armenia’s deputy director Aram Ghazarian,
were detained in October, 2005, after having publicly accused the RA
Customs office of corruption.

They were released after having spent 1.9 year in the National
Security Service.