“Case of Seven” at Appeals Court
Today the prisoners charged with the "Case of Seven" expressed their appeals/complaints at different halls of the Appeals Court at different hours.
The advocates of Sasun Mikayelyan, Myasnik Malkhasyan, Alexander Arzumanyan, Suren Sirunyan and Hakob Hakobyan were demanding from the judges to reverse the judgments of the first instance courts and reach the verdict of "not guilty".
Hovik Arsenyan, advocate of MP Myasnik Malkhasyan who is charged with organizing mass disturbances and was released by amnesty, said that there was no evidence in the criminal case to show that he was guilty.
"These trials were politically-oriented from the start," said Myasnik Malkhasyan, adding that he would not like to take responsibility for things that he had not done. According to him, he was first arrested for using drugs and then that was denied.
Another advocate Vaghinak Gevorgyan also defended MP Sasun Mikayelyan, who was sentenced to 8 years in prison by the first instance court of the Kotayk region.
In the beginning of the trial, Hovik Arsenyan presented a challenge petition to prosecutor Aram Amirzadyan, mentioning that he also helped make sure that the other witness, Tatul Karapetyan, did not testify in court and claim his testimony during the preliminary inquiry.
The prosecutor considered the petition groundless and the trio of judges, including Armen Danielyan, Mher Arghamanyan and Melik Sargsyan, rejected the petition after coming out of the consultations room.
Then advocate Vaghinak Gevorgyan presented a challenge petition to judges Mher Arghamanyan and Armen Danielyan and explained that the reason for the petition was that the two judges had examined many cases by Part 1, Article 225 of the Criminal Code in 2008 and 2009 and acknowledged him guilty, meaning that the two judges were biased and that it will be expressed in this case as well.
The prosecutor considered the petition groundless and the trio of judges rejected it too.
Sasun Mikayelyan was acknowledged builty based on Part 2, Article 235 and Part 1, Article 225 and was sentenced to 8 years in prison.
The judges must reach verdicts for the cases of Alexander Arzumanyan, Suren Sirunyan and Hakob Hakobyan by the end of the working day. They were acknowledged guilty by Part 1, Article 225 and were released by amnesty.
There were many people gathered in front of the courtroom today, including opposition activists with photos of former political prisoneres and the demand to declare them not guilty.
