Armenia President's Ex-bodyguard Accused Of Unpremeditated Murder

Trial of former bodyguard of the Armenian president Agamal Arutyunyan, accused of unpremeditated murder, has begun at a district court of Yerevan. Arutyunyan is accused of killing a Georgian citizen, Pogos Pogosyan, during a quarrel in a Yerevan cafe. Investigators established that last September Armenian President Robert Kocharyan and his visitor well-known French singer Charles Aznavour were listening to a popular jazz band in the cafe Aragast in Yerevan. Pogos Pogosyan, who was in the same cafe that night, behaved "frivolously" regarding them. First, bodyguards called Pogosyan aside. Several minutes after Kocharyan and Aznavour left the cafe, the bodyguards returned, took Pogosyan to the toilet and severely beat him, say investigators. As a result, the Georgian citizen died of a skull fracture.