The court hearing which took place on December 1 at the Criminal and Military Cases appeal court of Armenia had serious consequences. Let’s recall that the case being heard was the 15 year imprisonment of three army soldiers accused for murder: Razmik Sargsyan, Musa Serobyan and Arayik Zalyan.
The boys have gone out on a hunger strike to prove that they are innocent and Razmik Sargsyan can die at any moment. The 20 year old young man was brought to the court house being carried by police officers. The people present at the court hearing were staring at Razmik who sat at the table and could not move the whole time. Judge Mher Aghramanyan was rejecting all announcements made by the attorneys and objections claiming that the boy was dying and it was necessary to cure him. The judge was offending the rebels, the participants and journalists during the court hearing. Everyone present was pressured both psychologically and physically after all of this, including the police officers. Apparently, presiding judge Aghramanyan was against the rebels and that was proved during the last hearing when he went against rebel A. Zalyan. “Zalyan, I am reprimanding you for not speaking clearly and cursing.” We can not say what kind of punishment that will turn into, but the fact remains that the reprimand was absurd. Journalists following up on the court hearing standing near Arayik Zalyan recorded all that was said.
Got fat from the hunger strike
This court hearing ended tragically. The presiding judge announced that, according to the notice sent from the criminal cases department, Razmik is physically able to participate in the court hearing. According to the notifications of the doctor at the Nubarashen police department, Razmik used to weigh 104 pounds, but now he is 120 pounds. This means that the doctor believes that Razmik’s weight increased by 16 pounds during his hunger strike. As for the doctor and therapist of the clinical hospital Maya Hovhannisyan, Razmik weighed 150 pounds, however, at the present he weighs 121 pounds after a 110 day hunger strike and that is with clothes. The doctor at the isolation cell considers Razmik to be healthy, but the other doctor has discovered some illnesses by being in the isolation cell. If we put aside the conclusions made by the doctors, the people present at the court hearing see with their own two eyes how the 20 year old boy is dying. The only people that don’t realize this are the judges and the criminal department administration and are not doing anything to help him. The attorneys claim that the judge is being ordered around by military prosecutor Gagik Jhangiryan so that the murder committed by real criminal and army commander of Karabagh Ivan Grigoryan remains undercover. They claim that Razmik’s death is just what Karabagh and the Prosecutor’s office of Armenia need; that is why they are not doing anything to help the boy. Razmik’s mother Julieta Sargsyan told us during an interview: “Days ago, Judge Aghramanyan called me and said that Razmik suffers from shortage of blood, this means that they are coming up with reasons for the death of my son so that they can later say that he had an illness beforehand. Can you imagine? But I sent my son to the army 100% healthy. Even if he really had a shortage of blood, how can that be when the doctors had examined him before army enlistment and had not discovered any illness? Why did they take him to the army to serve? Basically, they are trying to find ways to kill my son and so we won’t have any way of accusing them. They will benefit from my son’s death because Razmik has surrendered after many beatings, has taken the blame for the murder and now claims that he was forced to do that. If anything happens to Razmik, the testimony that he is to blame for the murder committed by Ivan Grigoryan will remain as a document and the other two young men will stay in jail for 15 years for something they didn’t do. Ivan Grigoryan will not face any problems after Razmik’s death because there will be nobody to testify that the Karabagh prosecutors wanted to kill him with hand weapons while he was hanging from the air. Razmik is on the verge of dying but nobody has tried to help him because all they want is to kill my son; so that there will be no evidence.”
The presiding judge yelled again and rejected the lawyers who wanted to make announcements and draw the judge’s attention towards the boy who had gone out on a hunger strike and could die anytime soon. Lawyer Zaruhi Postanjyan was talking to the journalists in a crying tone: “What can I do? Tell me. Help me out, what can I do? Razmik is dying. He needs a doctor.” The three lawyers left the courtroom after notifying the judge. There was no room because many had gotten up out of their seats to demand a fair verdict for this case. It was announced that there will be a showing of a video tape where it is clearly shown how Razmik was testifying to the prosecutors that he was the one responsible for the murder.
Bruises on his face
A young boy in camouflage appeared on the screen in the courtroom and he was mumbling something. The participants were waiting for the prosecutor who had not appeared and the answers that the boy was giving to the questions. Their conversation was not clear due to the noise in the courtroom. The people were waiting impatiently as to when Razmik would appear on screen when all of a sudden his mother said that that was her son…the people were shocked. The boy was unrecognizable. Many knew Razmik from the photos printed in the newspaper, but the boy who was giving his testimony seemed to be someone else. The tape showed a boy who could barely speak. Razmik’s face was red and there were black bruises. His hands were pompous and there were traces of big bruises. Razmik was sitting with army clothes on and only his face and hands appeared. The boy was breathing heavily and was talking with difficulty from time to time. He could not move his body the whole time. He only moved his hands now and then and only when he was drawing some lines on paper. The prosecutor had probably written the scenario beforehand and was making the boy repeat his words one by one. The people in the courtroom were shocked by the testimony given by Razmik because it appeared that the boy had been beaten severely and no matter how much the prosecutor had tried to hide the traces of the beatings, the swelling on his hands and face and the black bruises appeared. The whole scene was taped for 30 minutes. Suddenly, rebel Arayik Zalyan screamed: “Water is coming out of Razmik’s mouth!”… Everyone stood up and the police were in a state of chaos. They were so confused that they didn’t know what to do. The police officers raised Razmik’s head and saw liquid on the table. The people started to scream and cry, but the judge, ironically, ordered to take Razmik out and call a doctor. We thought that he had died; even the police officers could not take him by holding his arms. They took his body somehow by pulling him. People were amazed and they were crying. They didn’t understand what was going on and were calling the judge a “fascist”.
The courtroom was in a state of chaos when Razmik’s mother fainted and fell on the ground unconscientiously. The situation in the courtroom was indescribable; everyone was in psychological pain. Nobody could bring Razmik’s mom back to reality for 10-15 minutes. The ambulance doctors came quickly. Nobody knew whether Razmik was dead or not. There were rumors flying around that they had taken him to the basement of the court house and they had brought doctors there. The lawyers were running here and there, but they were not allowed to enter the basement in order to be assured that Razmik was alive or not. The two ambulance trucks were for Razmik and his mother. After a long time, it was announced that legal proceedings will continue. After the court hearing restarted, ambulance doctor Laura Khshtoyan announced at court that Razmik was unable to participate and they needed to transfer him to the hospital. The judge announced postponing the court hearing for a while since Razmik could not be present.
…Three hours passed by. Nobody was allowed to enter. The people standing in front of the court house were confused and doubtful and were trying to find ways to help Razmik. They were trying to find someone who could get information concerning Razmik’s health. Finally, MP and leader of the Armenian Democratic political party Aram Sargsyan and representative for the ombudsman came with news about what was really going on.
After all that, it turned out that presiding judge Mher Arghamanyan and accuser Anahit Yeghiazaryan had not taken Razmik Sargsyan to the hospital. Instead, they had taken him to the isolation cell in that condition.
Does Razmik recognize the dead?
Now we will present a fact given to us by Movses Mkrtumyan, who is the father of army soldier Hovsep Mkrtumyan who had been killed. He was amazed and frustrated: “In the video tape showing the testimony, the prosecutor asked Razmik to describe Hovsep and Razmik said that he was a tall guy. My son was not tall. He was at my height (Movses is very short). There is some mistake here. If it goes on like this, I don’t know…they didn’t let me watch the tape in its entirety”. While showing the tape, the man was screaming: “Silence. Let’s watch. If you don’t need this, get out. Let me watch it”. M. Mkrtumyan’s comment just might help save these boys. Movses said something about this to journalists for “168 hours” and “Hetq”. Let’s hope that nothing happens to Movses Mkrtumyan until the next court hearing because according to what he said, it is clear that Razmik Sargsyan does not even know who the deceased Hovsep Mkrtumyan was.
P.S. The article was ready to be published when we received a message from press secretary of the Ministry of Justice A. Saghatelyan, which states the following: “Razmik Sargsyan, born in 1985, had announced his hunger strike on August 12, 2005. From that day forth, he has been under the supervision of doctors and is kept in the #5 cell for hunger strikers with three other strikers. One of them ended his strike based on his announcement. Razmik Sargsyan has not been forced to eat and refuses. At the present, the “Nubarashen” police department has no reason to send Razmik Sargsyan to the municipal hospital. …If media representatives want to contact R. Sargsyan, please call press secretary for the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Armenia A. Saghatelyan until December 5, 3:00 p.m.” We are doing just that.