Football players Gor and Edgar Malakian risk jail time for allegedly assaulting on-duty cops

Two professional football players in Armenia risk being jailed as they face criminal charges of assaulting a police officer and aggravated misdemeanor.

Brothers Gor and Edgar Malakian, professional football players from the FC Pyunik and FC Ararat Yerevan respectively, are suspected in physically assaulting on-duty police officers shortly before midnight on August 30 near Cascade, Yerevan.

According to the Committee of Investigations, Gor and Edgar Malakian, both intoxicated, approached on-duty traffic police officers who were writing a ticket to the footballers’ friend for a traffic violation outside a café. The brothers began telling the officers not to issue the ticket, and when the cops refused the two assaulted them.

According to authorities Gor and Edgar Malakian pushed the officers, ripped off their badges, bodycams and shoulder marks. Gor Malakian also physically assaulted an officer by punching him in the face, according...