SERVED ON DUTY ON FEBRUARY 23 CONNECTED TO MARCH 1

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Tigran Aghvanyan and Arman Hovhannisyan, who are the injured parties in the case of former Deputy Prosecutor General Gagik Jhangiryan, came to court together and entered the courtroom from the entrance foreseen for policemen and defendants instead of the main entrance.

Today the Kentron and Nork Marash communities’ general jurisdiction court continued the trial of Gagik Jhangiryan, who is charged with violence against state figures. Former police division worker Tigran Aghvanyan and junior inspector of the division Arman Harutyunyan [singer Shushan Petrosyan’s husband-editor] were prosecuted. After several questions asked to the defendant’s side during the prosecution, it turned out that Tigran Aghvanyan was fired due to his appeal. In fact, his notice to appear in court was not sent to his house; rather, it was sent to the 6th police division from where his friend and he came to court.

Tigran Aghvanyan, who was reluctant to answer the questions or thought about them for a while, told the story of how he was on duty that night, received an order that someone had been brought to the yard and that he had to take him to the 6th division building. He approached the “Ford” microbus, opened the door with his friend Arman, a couple of workers came out of the bus and fled. Afterwards, Tigran and Arman tried to take out Gagik Jhangiryan, who started moving his legs. “We got his hands and brought him down, while he was cursing and threatening us,” said Tigran Aghvanyan and added that on the road Gagik Jhangiryan let go of his hand and hit Arman, who fell and part of his uniform ripped.

Unlike Tigran Aghvanyan, the next injured party Arman Harutyunyan was kinder and more civilized. He answered questions in strictly literate Armenian. Let us recall that he had cursed during one of the trials and that was the reason why Gagik Jhangiryan responded: “He is a very modest boy.” But the judge suppressed him. “Don’t offend him.” “I’m not offending him, I’m praising him,” replied Gagik Jhangiryan. That was when Arman Harutyunyan replied: “I learned from my elders. I mean the elder generation.” The judge was pleased with that answer and told Gagik Jhangiryan: “You understood whom he meant.”

So, Arman Harutyunyan told his side of the story according to which he wasn’t on duty, but he had received a command to stay because there was an on-duty job connected to the March 1 events. This is where attorney Lusine Sahakyan came in and asked: “Was February 23 connected to March 1?” “Yes, he is right; March 1 started on February 23,” replied Gagik Jhangiryan. Harutyunyan began to stand up for himself and said that he had made a mistake.

He said that Gagik Jhangiryan had hit him on the shoulder, but he hadn’t received any injuries. After hearing the testimonies, Gagik Jhangiryan declared ironically as he summed up what he had heard: Jhangiryan voluntarily sits in the main police division car, gets out of it, sits in the “Ford” car, gives his legally purchased weapon to the police officer and then when we get to the police station, for some reason Jhangiryan doesn’t get out of the car, starts moving his feet around and resisting.

The next session will take place on November 6 at 2:00 p.m.

In fact, Arman Harutyunyan has testified to the prosecutor’s office claiming that after February 23, he had received threats on the Internet and on the phone from people who said that they would kill him, hurt him and his family and he attached that to his letters, which connected him to Gagik Jhangiryan. He said in court today that he no longer thinks that way. Attorney Yervand Varosyan said that the majority of the messages were sent on February 11. It is unclear as to why Arman sent the letters of February 23.