On May 15, another court session on Artak Nazaryan’s death started, but actually didn’t take place in Ijevan. At first, Judge Samvel Mardanyan postponed the session for 10 minutes, since the accused, Harutik Kirakosyan, who is not under arrest and continues his statutory service, had not been brought to the court yet. The judge reprimanded the military police officers who accompanied the accused for being late; the latter explained that the reason for that had been the poor condition of the Dilijan road.
Letters have been sent to the court from the police stations of Vagharshapat and Sisyan that Arman Mnatsakanyan, the core witness to the case, is absent from the country for medical purposes and witness Artur Mkrtchyan is in Nagorno-Karabakh and the presence of the latter at the next session will be ensured.
Levon Poghosyan, the counselor of defendant Vahagn Hayrapetyan, stated in this regard that the testimonies of the 4 “backup witnesses” underlay the charges, that the latter took any step during the court procedure, in order not to appear before the court and filed a motion to “diligently” take every necessary step to bring the witnesses, otherwise, he would file a motion to take the testimonies of the absent witnesses off the record. His words that the court “had not shown diligence” in ensuring the witnesses’ presence, “had not supervised it,” made Judge Mardanyan angry who responded to the counselor, “Do you like to say sweet and bitter words in vain? The court has taken all measures. Try to be polite while making statements. Speak of things you know about.”
Read also
Counselor Mushegh Shushanyan, the legal successor of the victim, agreed with the motion of Hrant Gevorgyan, the counselor of defendant Hakob Manukyan, to postpone the session in the absence of witnesses. Shushanyan stated that the letter gotten from the police could not be grounds to be convinced that Arman Mnatsakanyan was absent from the country and the court should apply to respective bodies to find out whether Arman Mnatsakanyan had really crossed the border of Armenia.
The counselor stated that the moment had come to move the assizes to Yerevan again. The judge said that the issue of the place of sessions was not to be discussed at that session. Artak Nazaryan’s sister Tsovinar Nazaryan also claimed that the sessions should be moved to Yerevan, reasoning that both witnesses lived nearer to Yerevan than to Ijevan. The court made a decision to bring the above-mentioned witnesses and to ensure their presence in the court through the investigation body.
Human rights advocate Ruben Martirosyan, the representative of the victim’s legal successor, informed Aravot’s reporter that they had communicated with Arman Mnatsakanyan for a few months, that he was a lively, vigorous and healthy young man who was forced to give a false testimony, which he didn’t want to do. In the human rights advocate’s words, Artur Mkrtchyan was the only witness to the case who ventured to protest and state at the preliminary investigation stage that he had been forced to give a testimony by beating and violence, now he is forced to come and give a false testimony to the court, which he doesn’t want to do.
According to Ruben Martirosyan, Artur Mkrtchyan’s brother who served with Artur is kept at the military police in Yerevan “as a hostage” up to now as if they have used a means for his protection, whereas he wasn’t at the crime scene, where Artak Nazaryan died.
The next court session on Artak Nazaryan’s death will take place on May 22.
Voskan SARGSYAN
