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NEW LINE OF CHARGES?

Politics

“The preliminary investigation of the March 1 events is over, yet the “Sword of Damocles” hangs over the participants of the events. On September 3, a day before the end of the preliminary investigation, the Prosecutor General assigned head of the investigation service Andranik Mirzoyan to form a new investigative body, which must secure the objectivity of the case. This goes to show that there is a new line of charges to be pressed, otherwise why would they form a new investigative body if the preliminary investigation is over?” told “A1+” Coordinator of Legal Services for Political Prisoners Armen Khachatryan.

According to Mirzoyan, the main case is very important because it is not only a charge against 7 or 11 individuals, including Nikol Pashinyan, Khachatur Sukiasyan, Virab Manukyan and Hamlet Hovhannisyan, a charge against the remaining 130 prisoners, the other citizens or the possible accused, but also a charge against the 300-400,000 citizens who were in the square,” said Armen Khachatryan and added that the decision on the charges listed names of the accused and then the circle of accused who haven’t been revealed.

Armen Khachatryan informed “A1+”: “At the moment, the attorneys have been called to set deadlines for getting acquainted with the materials. We will be forced to protest so that we can get a reasonable deadline in any case, especially since attorney Stepan Voskanyan has just gotten involved as Grigor Voskerchyan’s attorney; the same goes for Liparit Siomnyan who recently got involved as Alik Arzumanyan’s attorney. Armen Khachatryan also informed that although RA Prosecutor General Aghvan Hovsepyan assured EU Special Representative to the South Caucasus Peter Semnebi that a reasonable amount of time is given to get acquainted with the materials, it is not only unsatisfactory, but also ridiculous (43 days to read 41 volumes of cases),” said Armen Khachatryan. ՚

According to him, they have no problem with postponing the case. They need that time to read the cases.

“We don’t want to start unprepared because this is more important than the political contexts, political processes and it is about fulfilling our duty as professionals,” said Armen Khachatryan. Khachatryan also touched upon the Prosecutor General’s assurance that Armenia accepts the EU requirements according to which nobody should be sentenced for political views and that the charges were only made for certain actions and misbehavior. Khachatryan says that there is no concrete charge for the 7 accused.

“The stories on the confidential hearings published in the pro-government newspapers contribute a lot to the case. They’re working for us; there is no proof that Alik Arzumanyan was an organizer. These are the proofs that we need to use for our defense.”

Armen Khachatryan believes that the court will put away one of the cases regarding the four individuals under persecution. According to Armen Khachatryan, the Yerevan Criminal Court President V. Abrahamyan, who is close with NA Chairman Hovik Abrahamyan, will judge the court hearings for the March 1 events.

To present how ridiculous the case is, Armen Khachatryan brought up an example: the police officer threw the grenade, then the wind brought it back, the police officer got poisoned from the grenade that he threw and was considered handicapped along with the tens of police officers who were considered victims after they got poisoned from the grenades they threw. Their testimonies are voluminous. Out of the 41 volumes of cases, only 20 may be considered material for a criminal case of which 13 are volumes connected to the accused.