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A journalist of the Union of Informed Citizens (UIC) NGO has been beaten up while reporting on the anti-government protests in downtown Yerevan on Thursday, the programs director of the union said in a post on Facebook.  

“Two plainclothes police officers just beat up our journalist Tirayr Muradyan close to the third government building (Tirayr was wearing his badge). The uniformed police officers at the site did not intervene. We have the photos of the perpetrators and will release them shortly,” Daniel Ioannisyan said. 

Tirayr Muradyan has been taken to the St. Grigor Lusavorich Medical Center.

Speaking to RFE/RL Armenian Service, Ara Minasyan, the director of the hospital, said the reporter has suffered head soft tissue injuries, as well as injuries in the left temple and neck.

The wounds are not very serious, but he has to remain under the supervision of doctors for 5-7 hours, he said.

Tirayr Muradyan said he had earlier fixed the suspicion conduct of the two people who attacked him. “They did not act like participants of the rally, constantly reporting by phone on what they were seeing,” he said.

According to him, they knew he was a reporter since he was wearing his badge, with the two perpetrators beating him up in front of the police officers, who did nothing to help him.