On November 26, Guinea’s Equatorial court condemned 6 Armenian pilots
in starting a revolution. Five of the pilots got sentenced to 14 years
in prison, and commander of the plane Ashot Karapetyan got sentenced to
24 years of imprisonment. The main suspect Nick Du Tuan, who had
objected to the accusation of the 6 Armenian pilots in starting a
revolution, was sentenced to 34 years of imprisonment, even though the
chief prosecutor had demanded to condemn him to life in prison. On
November 25, the court postponed hearing the case of Mark Thetcher. The
latter was accused of funding the revolt.
During an interview with BBC, main suspect Du Tuan said that Mark
Thetcher had only discussed the sale of helicopters and there was no
talk about starting a revolution. 51 year-old Thetcher objected to the
accusations of him participating in the revolution and said that he
felt like he was “dead” during the court hearing. The lawyers of the
accused complained to the Reuters agency, claiming that “we wish for
the whole world to know about the injustice going on in this court.
There is evidence for this. The prisoners can not communicate with
their lawyers and they suffer much in the jailhouse.” The mass media
from the Western world played around with the Armenian pilots yet
again. One of our sources-Armenian pilot Samvel Matchkalyan told us
that the Armenian prisoners had gotten a chance to talk with their
families on the telephone for a couple of minutes. “They say that they
are doing fine, but it is clear how they are feeling after all this.
Well, the good thing is that they are not losing faith,” says L.
Matchkalyan. According to Matchkalyan and owner of “Tiga Air” B.
Avagyan (let’s not forget to mention that the “Antonov-12” plane
belongs to “Tiga Air”), The Armenian pilots departed, arrived and got
arrested upon getting out of the plane. (“Tiga Air” has a contract with
the German CAL airline company) the Armenian pilots’ lawyer Ponsiano
Mbombo Nuon is going to protest to Guinea’s Equatorial Court’s verdict
in front of the Supreme Court of that country. “Documents are in the
process of being prepared,” said owner of “Tiga Air” Boris Avagyan
during a telephone conversation. The Armenian side is going to meet
with representatives of the Foreign Ministry of Guinea to discuss the
future of the Armenian pilots. “Neither the pilots, nor we did not
think that the court would sentence them to that many years,” said B.
Avagyan. “These periods of imprisonment are senseless, there is no
explanation as to why 14 or 24 years and not 2 or 200,” says L.
Matchkalyan, who is the brother of one of the pilots. As for the
“Antonov-12” plane, Equatorial Guinea has not returned the plane to its
owner. “The plane belongs to the “Dvin” company. I don’t remember since
what year,” says B. Avagyan. “Since I have not taken part in the court
hearing, I can not say exactly what will happen with the plane.”
“How much does the plane cost?” In response to this question, B.
Avagyan replied that he does not know and suggested that we find out
about the case and more details from the Foreign Ministry of Armenia.
The following is stated in the November 30 message of the Foreign
Ministry: “The Armenian delegation has been permitted to visit the
prisoners. Ambassador Sergey Manasaryan and vice director of the State
Order Gevorg Petrosyan are leading negotiations with different
countries regarding this issue. They have also met with Chief Secretary
of the Democratic political party of Equatorial Guinea Philiberto
Entutumoy. Meetings will also take place with the administration of the
foreign department in order to present the appeal to review the case of
the pilots.” The message also states that the Armenian delegation keeps
in touch every day with the Armenian pilots’ defenders. The defender is
getting ready to protest the verdict at the Supreme Court of Equatorial
Guinea, however, until today the court is not giving the written
statement of the verdict to the lawyer. The protest can be made only
after receiving the verdict. The defender of South Africans and
representatives of the “International Union of Lawyers” and “Amnesty
International” who are following up on the court hearing have also not
received the written statement. Those representatives, as well as
diplomats and international journalists who are well informed about the
case, contradict the verdict presented by the court. “They are very
optimistic about everything. They feel that the Armenian pilots are
free to express themselves in court and get sentenced to a minimum
amount of years in prison. The court has not heard any evidence for
accusing the pilots.” This is stated in the message of the Foreign
Ministry of the Republic of Armenia.