Square on March 1 was postponed again today
The trial on the two policemen who were charged with beating people at Freedom Square on March 1 was postponed again today.
The policemen are Gegham Harutyunyan and Hovhannes Ghukasyan from the Kentron police headquarters. They were both present at the trial at the Kentron and Nork-Marash districts' first instance court today which actually began with a 40-minute delay.
The first two trials were postponed due to different reasons. Gegham Harutyunyan had not been able to come to the first one due to health conditions. Besides that, the charged had asked the judge to engage an advocate to get acquainted with the materials of their case. In the other trial, advocate Arshak Tovmasyan had injured his foot and had not been able to make it to court. Today's trial was postponed upon the request of the advocate in order for him to be able to prepare for the challenge petition to be presented to the prosecutor.
Until then, the advocate had presented a challenge petition to Judge Gagik Poghosyan who denied it. According to the petition, the judge is not impartial. According to the advocate, proof of that is the fact that the judge had not quashed the case from the beginning.
Advocate Arshak Tovmasyan told "A1+" that he is definitely going to demand justification from the court because there are no grounds for that. "I don't know if there is any hope or not, but I will petition for a verdict of justification. Of course, that will also depend on my work, the gathered materials and the evidence," he said, adding that his clients didn't participate in the beatings at Freedom Square on March 1 and they were simply on the defendants' side. According to him, there is supporting evidence.
The next trial will be held on November 12 at 2 p.m.
