Witness recognised Pashinian's shoe among 150 demonstrators
During today's trial of Haykakan Zhamanak's chief editor Nikol Pashinian, the defendant stated several times that the charges were unclear to him. But Judge Mnatsakan Martirosian refrained from elucidating.
"I don't plead guilty under the charges brought against me," announced Nikol Pashinian.
The editor-in-chief of Haykakan Zhamanak daily is charged under Article 316 (violence against a government representative) and Article 225 (calls for mass disorder) of the RA Criminal Code.
The court session started with the interrogation of Vazgen Dabaghian, a police officer and a plaintiff in the case. The witness thoroughly described the events of October 23, 2007, at the intersection of Abovian and Koriun streets during an opposition's march.
Reaching the intersection, he found some 150 demonstrators holding the traffic and blocking pedestrians' route.
"They were all shouting and swearing the authorities. The demonstrators said the police served the authorities. They repeated Pashinian's words who was holding a megaphone in one hand and elbowing the police with the other. Police officers pushed people to the wall, and then a skirmish began between police officers and marchers. A chaos ensued afterwards and Pashinian kicked me on the right leg," said Vazgen Dabaghian.
The witness noted that he was staring at Pashinian's megaphone all the time. The course of the smooth story drastically changed, however, after Pashinian and advocate Lusine Sahakian began to cross-examine the witness.
The police officer was unable to respond to the advocate's questions as to where people gathered, why they were pushed to the wall, whether there was congestion or not. Dabaghian began contradicting himself, stating different things at a time.
Pashinian later asked how the plaintiff could recognise his leg or shoe among the 150 people the plaintiff had mentioned. But, the plaintiff insisted on his words.
The witness was unable to answer numerous other questions.
After the cross-examination, the court session was adjourned till October 28.
