Piloyan renounced his eyewitnesses
The prosecutor's side for editor-in-chief of "Haykakan Zhamanak" daily Nikol Pashinyan's case renounced its eyewitnesses who had been called to court today. Prosecutor Koryun Piloyan announced that the testimonies given to this day are enough to consider the charges under Article 225 and Article 316 of the Criminal Code established. Let us recall that the prosecutors had called 43 eyewitnesses to court and nearly 15 were interrogated in court.
Prosecutor Piloyan ended the interrogation of the eyewitnesses after the interrogation of the police from the Armavir Marz. In their testimonies, the policemen informed that on March 1 at 11 a.m., they had received the command to move from Armavir to Yerevan. Eyewitness, policeman Tornik Poghosyan told the court that the people near the Myasnikyan statue on March 1 had beaten the police for nearly 10-15 minutes. He personally hadn't seen Pashinyan, but heard his voice. "He was telling us to arm ourselves with whatever we could," the policeman said.
Among other eyewitnesses today was policeman from Armavir Marz, Zaven Ohanyan. "We came from Armavir to Yerevan in a bus and we were hit with stones before even coming out of the bus. We were not armed. We entered the building of the municipality. The people were trying to enter and it seemed that they wanted to bring us out of there."
In response to questions from Nikol Pashinyan's advocate Lusine Sahakyan, the eyewitness said: "The people weren't hurting us, but they wanted to threaten us. We were defending the inside of the municipality with shields." Prosecutor Koryun Piloyan immediately got up from his seat and called on the court to not permit the prosecutor to pressure the eyewitness.
After Piloyan's objection, the policeman said: "It felt like the people wanted to come inside the municipality and hurt us." Eyewitness Ohanyan announced that he personally hadn't seen Nikol Pashinyan at the Myasnikyan statue on March 1, nor had he heard him, but he felt that Pashinyan was giving commands to the people and the people were following those commands.
The most aggressive among the policemen today was Karen Mkrtchyan. The questions given by Pashinyan's advocates frustrated Mkrtchyan so much that he started screaming: "Please, ask me once and if I say something, please don't take it as correct. I say everything as far as I can remember."
Judge Martirosyan called the eyewitness to order and warned him that he was violating a trial order.
After the eyewitness left, Piloyan petitioned to interrogate Pashinyan. Nikol Pashinyan asked the court for time and a computer to prepare for the interrogation, mentioning that he would definitely give testimonies.
"Piloyan interrupted the interrogation of the eyewitnesses because they contradicted their testimonies given during the preliminary investigation. The policemen from the Armavir Marz were the ones who applied force against the people on March 1," Lusine Sahakyan told "A1+".
The trial will continue on November 26.
