Journalist Arrested for Extorting Money from a Traffic Police Official to be Released on 2,000,000 AMD Bail

On July 15, the RA Court of Appeal (headed by Judge A. Nikoghosyan) granted the submitted appeal and recognized the substitution of detention with bail for journalist Gayane Manukyan of Hzham.am as permissible, setting the bail amount at 2,000,000 AMD (two million Armenian drams). This information was reported by the "Ghazaryan and Partners" law firm.

After paying the specified amount and presenting proof to the prosecuting authority, Gayane Manukyan will participate in the pre-trial investigation while remaining at liberty.

Earlier, it was reported that staff members from the 6th division of the Police detained Gayane Manukyan from the office of a Traffic Police official on suspicion of extortion, finding 400,000 drams in her possession. According to some sources, the journalist had told the Traffic Police official that she had compromising information regarding him and had demanded money to refrain from publishing it, after which she was detained upon receiving the money.