The case of seven was brought to end yesterday at the court of general jurisdiction of Shengavit community.
After the amendment of the articles 225 and 300 the prosecutor asked the court to give ten days to change the accusation. After the mentioned law amendment yesterday the court held the first session in the new format, during which prosecutor Koryun Piloyan presented the new accusation. The expression “state power usurpation” is excluded from the new accusation. The political prisoners are accused only under the article 225 for organizing public disorders (the accusation for organizing public disorders resulting in death of people has been excluded). However, Sasun Mikayelyan is also charged under the article 235 for having an illegal weapon, and Myasnik Malkhasyan is also charged under the article 316/2 for confronting representatives of the state.
All political prisoners were in the court room during the mentioned session. They were complaining of the new accusation. After the accusation was brought and read the judge went to the consultation room for about two hours. Sasun Mikayelyan’s lawyer Hovik Arsenyan said that if the judge approved the accusation it would be a violation of the principle of equality. “Our protectees would separately apply for immediate suspension of the criminal proceedings against them. I don’t know any law that would let the prosecutors have a right of extraordinary vote and have an opportunity to speak first. They had to consider the applications of the accused people first,” said Hovik Arsenyan.
The judge returned in two hours and announced that the proceedings of the first clause of the article 300 were stopped. The political prisoners are not accused under the mentioned article any more. The judge decided to separate the cases of the political prisoners and handle each of the cases separately. Only the cases of Alexander Arzumanyan and Suren Sirunyan will be considered jointly and will stay under the jurisdiction of the Kentron and Nork-Marash community, but the sessions will take place in the building of Shengavit community and the judge will be Mnatsakan Martirosyan. The other cases will be handled in the court of Kentron and Nork Marash communities. However, the case of Sasun Mikayelyan will be sent to the court of Kotayk region. It is not clear yet who the other five judges will be.
In other words, the case of seven does not exist any more and is broken to parts. During the past four months the authorities have at least understood that the case of the political prisoners is attracting too much attention on part of the society and this process may result in demonstrations and rallies. They failed to fulfill the PACE requirement and release the political prisoners but decided to correct their mistake and handle the cases separately in order to disperse the public attention from the case of political prisoners. In addition, the decision of the judge contradicts the logic of the accusation. Piloyan read in his accusation that the political prisoners had come to an agreement to organize mass disorders in advance. This provision means that they should be charged under one common case. The political prisoners and their relatives were surprised at the mentioned decision.
“There may be new surprises too. They are abusing the law and reality and we don’t know what they want to do with this. As a lawyer I don’t understand whether my profession can do anything here or no. They separated the case unlike the announcement in their accusation that the accused people had organized public disorders as a result of coming to agreement in advance. If they did it together, why did the court make such illegal decision? The strange thing is that they separated Sasun Mikayelyan’s case and sent to Kotayk region. Did he organize public disorders in that community? If yes, they had to send Voskerchyan’s case to that region too. I don’t know whether to laugh or cry, this is a funny tragedy. We will appeal against this decision for sure,” said H. Arsenyan.
“If there is no case of seven, there is no noise either. They are judging separately to disperse the public attention from the case. Such things are characteristic to this government,” said lawyer Michael Daniyelyan concerning the court proceedings.
The part concerning the heirs of the victims has been separated from the case too because the accusation under the law stating that public disorders were organized resulting in death of people was taken out too. This part of the case will be considered either separately or within the main proceedings of March 1 events. “I don’t know what to do, we may apply to the court to punish the four police officers who used special explosive and shooting weapons that day. If they wanted to separate the case, they could do it one year ago and would have a result now. Now we have to wait for more 1 or 2 years. We are not going to wait for it and we will apply to higher instances and to the European court. I am not sure whether they will discover the murder of our children and punish the murderers. I am worried and insulted now. Today I asked the judge what to do and where to apply and he told me that I would be informed about it later,” says Sargis Kloyan, the father of Gor Kloyan killed on March 1.
The relatives of the victims have numerously announced and said at the court that the political prisoners are not connected with the killings of their children in any way. They were demanding from the court to launch a separate case to judge the four police officers shooting at their children. Three young people were killed as a result of shooting from Cheryomukha 7 weapon. The killed young people are Tigran Khachatryan aged 23, Gor Kloyan aged 29 and Armen Pharmanyan aged 35. “I think that after this decision the case for discovering the one who killed my son will be frozen. The special investigation body will investigate the case again. It is more than one year that they have been investigating the case. If they know who the four policemen are, why are they launching a new investigation? I think that the best solution will be to handle the case jointly and invite the 4 policemen who shoot and killed people,” says Alla Hovhannisyan, the mother of Tigran Khachatryan killed on March 1. The judge said that the next court session of Arzumanyan’s and Sirunyan’s case will take place on April 8.