Pushing to suicide
"In 1994, I captured 26 Azeri captives, but I did not torture or treat them the way I am being treated today," says active participant of the Karabakh liberation war, commander of the Shushi squadron Rafael Balbabyan, who is an eyewitness in the criminal cases brought against Sasun Mikayelyan and Myasnik Malkhasyan,
The first time he received a blow and contusion was in Artsakh and the second time was on March 1 in Yerevan. Policemen cut his head with rubber bludgeons, but after receiving aid at the hospital Rafael Balbabyan was transferred home with the brain tumor and refused any further treatment. Rafael Balbabyan is currently blind due to the blows to his head and the brain tumor.
He was taken to the inquiry in that condition and signed papers without reading. As Rafael Balbabyan said, it was during Sasun Mikayelyan's trial when Balbabyan heard that the investigators were saying things that did not have anything to do with what he had said and denied the testimonies that he had given during the preliminary inquiry.
He is currently called as an eyewitness for Myasnik Malkhasyan's trial. Policemen from Charentsavan (Rafael Balbabyan lives in Charentsavan-ed.) have taken him to the police headquarters a couple of times and have forced him to reject participation in Malkhasyan's trial or claim the testimonies given during the preliminary inquiry.
"They take me to the prosecutor's office, the investigative body and then the division every day. The chief of police of the Kotayk Marz came, the deputy chief came, they all come to persuade me to accept my testimonies about Malkhasyan as a basis, to sign and get out of court. I told them no," Balbabyan told "A1+".
The pressure on him and his 26-year old son have gotten to the point when Rafael Balbabyan declared that he will commit suicide if policemen knock on his door one more time.
"My children are scared and hide when somebody knocks on the door. What do they want from me? What have I done? What am I guilty for? If guilty, let me be punished. I don't know what's going on with the nation. They have turned fascist."
Yesterday policemen of Charentsavan took Rafael Balbabyan's passport so that he would not show up to court and testify. But he is willing and announced that in any case, he is planning to go to court and refuse to the give the testimonies given during the preliminary inquiry under his name.
