Witnesses renounce testimonies
"Numerous are cases when the subpoenaed witnesses disclaimed their former testimony during the trials of Armenian political prisoners. Each time the witnesses said they had been forced to give perjurious testimony.
Today the witnesses in the partitioned case of the seven prominent opposition activists renounce their testimony on the same ground leaving the prosecutor in an awkward situation.
All indictments are on the "verge of collapse". To avert all possible consequences, the regime began exerting total repression against the witnesses.
The witnesses for the case of Grigor Voskerchyan and Hakob Hakobyan have already been subjected to similar pressure. In particular, the witnesses in the case of Grigor Voskerchyan were called to the Police Department of Abovyan City and threatened to renounce their preliminary testimony. Moreover, they were given drafted testimonies to learn and read in the courtroom, reported G. Voskerchyan and his advocate.
Not all witnesses are invited to courts. Some of them haven't even received writs of summons, others have been ordered not to show up in the courtroom.
Before a May 5 trial the witnesses were invited to the National Security Service and then taken to the court in NSS cars. On the same day, a group of masked people in police uniforms burst into the flats of witnesses in the case of H. Hakobyan and threatened them to give false testimony.
The Armenian National Congress (HAK) announces that the acting regime is seeking ways to conceal its crime. Armenian authorities at the head of Serzh Sargsyan continue disgracing and marring justice and the judicial system and turning them into institutes serving the interests of a bandit group."
