“If we accept the prosecutor’s version that my defendants did what is attributed to them, the punishment proposed by the prosecutor in the form of imprisonment is too harsh,” Stepan Voskanyan, the counselor of the ANC activists, said to journalists after the trial today. He also talked about the claims of the prosecutor that the defense had not put forward necessary legal acts proving the illegal actions of police officers, “What legal acts do they need, when police officers took an action beyond their powers during the incident.” The counselor thinks that the court will make a respective assessment concerning the punishment, while bringing in a verdict, “I don’t think that the court will bring in a verdict with the same term and type of punishment. The court will draw a respective, right conclusion after the speech for the defense, in particular. We considered the charges brought against the defendants groundless from the beginning, there is no proof and the evidence that has been obtained is mainly the testimonies of police officers. The whole indictment is based on those testimonies.” In Mr.
Voskanyan’s words, no investigation into the defense’s versions has been made and there has been no mention of them in the indictment, “I think that Tigran Arakelyan’s punishment, in particular, aims at restricting and making the case appear more serious – i.e. they try to repress, frighten Tigran Arakelyan by this. There might be an instruction too.”
Arpine SIMONYAN
