Pashinyan used Piloyan's video clips
All video clips presented by the prosecutor today during the trial of editor-in-chief of "Haykakan Zhamanak" daily Nikol Pashinyan were edited.
"We are dealing with editing that was done for the trial," Pashinyan announced and promised to touch upon all episodes in his testimonies.
The preliminary investigative body presented to the court today the video recordings near the Myasnikyan statue on March 1, 2008. In the video, Pashinyan was not at the Myasnikyan statue yet, but Pashinyan's words had been added. The prosecutor also edited Pashinyan's words and presented only the parts where Pashinyan called on the people to have something with them for self-defense.
Accepting the edited video clips as a basis, Pashinyan today corroborated that the people gathered near the Myasnikyan statue didn't organize a mass disturbance, but simply defended themselves after the beatings at Freedom Square.
"The people had gathered near the Myasnikyan statue to be in the eye of the French, Italian and Russian Embassies so that the Armenian authorities wouldn't apply force against them again. The video also shows how Sashik Afyan sways the people to go to the Matenadaran on Mashtots avenue," he said. "The provokers were ready on Mashtots avenue. If the authorities had agreed to let the people hold a rally and were giving space at the Matenadaran, why did they prohibit them from holding the rally at Freedom Square?"
After watching the video clips and Pashinyan's statement on the clips, prosecutor Koryun Piloyan said: "But Pashinyan did organize a little." Pashinyan's advocate Lusine Sahakyan deemed it necessary to let Piloyan and the court know that "organizing mass events" doesn't mean "organizing mass disturbances".
"Although two of the words are the same, they are two different things. What happened near the statue on March 1 was not a mass disturbance, but a mass event with no organizer. The people had come out to the streets on their own."
Lusine Sahakyan told "A1" that after watching the prosecutor's video clips, they are planning to present the unedited video clips. "It turns out that even today, we are now using the video clips even more than the prosecutor. I understand the prosecutor's anxiety, but the fact is that the prosecutors haven't been able to provide ground for Pashinyan's charge," Lusine Sahakyan said.
