Judge wasn't satisfied with testimonies
The first instance court of the Kentron and Nork Marash districts interrogated 2 eyewitness policemen today.
Let us remind that Kentron district policemen Gegham Harutyunyan and Hovhannes Ghukasyan are charged with beating citizens at Freedom Square on the morning of March 1, 2008.
The first to be interrogated was taxi driver Volodya Balachyan who had taken the person who was beaten by the charged policemen. Those days the eyewitness was working for the "VIP" taxi service, but he has changed his workplace and is currently working for the "Biz" taxi service.
On the day of the events, his car was parked at Republic Square when, as he said, he woke up at around 6-7 a.m. and saw that there were over 100 people walking from Northern Avenue down Abovyan Street. "Apparently, they were demonstrators because they kept telling people to unite and the police were after them," the eyewitness said.
At that moment, a 40-year old anonymous man sat in his car, but didn't tell the driver where to go. According to the eyewitness, he was probably one of the demonstrators and wanted to escape. But after a short while, two policemen opened the door and started beating him with bludgeons. The eyewitness didn't remember the policemen's faces. Judge Gagik Poghosyan demanded that he look at them carefully.
"I have been coming and going for the past 10 days. I look at the culprits, but I don't remember them," the eyewitness Volodya Balachyan assured. After the interrogation, the eyewitness addressed the court and asked: "Can I leave now? Am I going to come to court again? Don't call me anymore, I don't know anything." This made everybody laugh.
The next eyewitness was commander of the 1st squadron of the Patrol Service Vardan Gevorgyan who was simply a commander on March 1, 2008. He replied that he didn't remember anything in response to all questions in court and only after watching the DVD did he recall the incident. "If you don't remember anything, why did you come to testify?" Since there were contradictions in his testimonies, the court released a part of his testimonies given during the preliminary investigation. The judge was apparently not satisfied with the eyewitness's testimonies and mentioned that eyewitness Gevorgyan will probably be called to court again.
Since the other eyewitnesses hadn't shown up to court due to military service, the judge postponed the trial to December 8 at 10 a.m.
