The judge in charge of the Case of Seven postponed the session again. When he entered the room the respondents, Alexan Arzumanyan, Myasnik Malkhasyan, Hakob Hakobyan, Sasun Mikayelyan, Shant Harutyunyan, Suren Surenyan and Grigor Voskerchyan did not stand up. The judge entered the room, promptly read his decision, pointed out the dates when the respondents had not stood up, and said that the trial was postponed. Thus, the sixth session of the Case of Seven last only five minutes. Of course this was the same reason why the judge postponed the other sessions too, but during the previous ones at least the respondents could make announcements. In other words, this time the authorities decided not to make efforts to demonstrate anything and directly showed that they were waiting till the upcoming session where 1609 and 1620 resolutions and the issue of depriving Armenia of the vote would be discussed. The lawyers of the political prisoners were surprised by this decision. They are sure that it is not by chance that the trial is postponed till the end of January because at that time the PACE session will have taken place. “Since January 19 the decisions whether to start, terminate or what to do are made outside. The purpose of this decision was to pend the case till the adoption of the PACE resolution on Armenia,” said lawyer Hovik Arsenyan.
MP Zaruhi Postanjyan believes that the court has come to a deadlock and does not know what to do with the trial. “I think that the court realizes that the accusation is fake and does not know how to proceed the case. Accordingly, it is trying to go out of the deadlock by delaying the proceedings all the time. In consideration of the situation in Armenia it is possible that the court may delay the proceedings all the time, but it is a result of such things, of lack of judgments that we are in such situation. It is a result of such things that the PACE wants to impose punishments on Armenia.” Said Zaruhi Postanjyan.
After the session the court room guards were preventing the work of journalists and were trying to make them leave the room. “Is it cynicism, irony? I don’t know, I can’t explain what it is. The judge even did not ask people why they did not stand up. He had to do that at least to follow the manner established by the law. Maybe these people had serious reasons not to do so. All his decisions are illegal and I don’t think that the trial can be delayed so much all the time only because of the fact that the respondents don’t stand up. I think that they should look for other solutions,” said lawyer Vardan Harutyunyan. “I think that the refusal to stand up and the decision as a punishment are inadequate. Our state has been faced with a problem because handling a court case with such proofs is not in the interests of the accusing party. In other words the accusing party does not have sufficient proofs and they are waiting for the PACE decision on Armenia. Refusal to stand up is not a serious obstacle for conducting a court session and it is not fair to keep the people in cells for 20-25 days for not standing up. The judge could emphasize that the respondents had failed to stand up and continue the proceedings,” said Melanya Arustamyan, the lawyer of MP Myasnik Malkhasyan and Hakob Hakobyan. Mrs. Arustamnyan also said that Hakobyan’s health condition had become very bad. “Today he was obligated to go to the court. He has pain in the stomach and he can hardly move. He is asking to take him to any hospital,” said the lawyer.
After the session the head of the accusing party Koryun Piloyan went out of the room, but when he saw journalists there he returned back. To note, during the previous session he said that he might petition to take the respondents out of the court session hall during the court proceeding.
Alla Hovhannisyan, representative of suffered party Tigran Khachatryan killed on March 1, visited the court too. She was angry at the judge. “Specifically I need to know who killed my son. However I know that my son was killed by specific weapons and such weapons were given to the police. I don’t know what will happen if they continue like this. They postponed the session till January 30, it is the birthday of my son, he would become 24. Whatever they do I will come here all the time and will demand justice,” said A. Hovhannisyan.