YEREVAN. – The relatives of Lieutenant Colonel Ara Mkhitaryan, who was severely beaten last year in Yeghegnadzor, Armenia, are in front of the Ministry of Defense Central Military Clinical Hospital in Yerevan today, and they are protesting yesterday’s court ruling.

Yesterday, the Criminal Court of Appeal granted the motion to release Zaven Grigoryan, a defendant in the criminal case into the beating of Mkhitaryan.

Grigoryan was released on 1,500,000-dram bail.

Aram Mkhitaryan has been in a coma for about six months.

The Investigative Committee of Armenia had stated that then governor of Vayots Dzor Province Trdat Sargsyan was not an eyewitness to the dispute that took place on September 17 of last year. However, the four military officers who witnessed the incident said that Sargsyan was at the scene and he followed the incident, not preventing it.

Harutyun Grigoryan, an assistant to the now former governor of Vayots Dzor, has been charged along the lines of the aforesaid case. Grigoryan's brother Zaven Grigoryan is also a defendant. One week after the incident, Trdat Sargsyan resigned as Vayots Dzor governor.