Mariam Gevorgyan’
At the moment, a protest is organized by NGOs dealing with the protection of women’s rights outside the trial court of Ararat and Vayots Dzor and Mariam Gevorgyan’s lawsuit against her mother-in-law Haykanush Mikayelyan, who, according to the prosecution, has severely beaten her daughter-in-law, burned her breasts and back, pricked her body with a fork and made her eat the bile she had vomited, is being examined in the court.
Mariam’s neighbors and relatives joined the protest outside the court. The relatives of the defense are also there and they make quite aggressive statements, “They married their crazy daughter to our boy and they didn’t say that a rash breaks out on her face. Their witchy daughter… They do all this for money.”
The Ziroyans’ relatives state that the pictures, in which Mariam’s back burned with an iron was shown, “is made up,” it is not a woman’s back. During a conversation with us, Mariam’s father assured, in response to those statements, that the traces were still there and it was impossible to deny it. During a conversation with www.aravot.am, Mariam’s ex-husband David Ziroyan said that he didn’t wish to say anything at the moment, after the court’s verdict, he would make facts public. In response to our question whether it was humane to abuse Mariam only because pimples come out on her face, David said, “She has burned herself to demand that we give her an apartment and money.”
In response to these claims of Mariam Gevorgyan’s ex-husband, Mariam’s parents and sister said, “One must be a psycho, to say the least, to burn one’s own breast with an iron. How did Mariam break her own nose, were they at home, when Mariam was burning herself, they
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should have said ‘my dear girl, what are you doing.’ Or if she had a skin disease, they should have sent her back, shouldn’t have kept and tormented her.”
According to Mariam’s relatives, when they met Mariam at the airport, they didn’t recognize her, her face was so disfigured, “It is a family respected by the whole village, Mariam has always been a very modest and smart girl.”
Mariam’s mother got sick a few times outside the court because of the aggressive statements made by her former relatives.
Let us state that the court session was behind closed doors and the participants in the protest demanded a fair trial. During a conversation with www.aravot.am, Mariam Gevorgyan’s counselor Nona Galstyan said that they had filed a petition in the court of appeals demanding an open trial, but the court of appeals had not accepted it explaining that the Armenian legislation didn’t provide for examining such petitions. According to Nona Galstyan, they referred to Article 13 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which provides for such a thing. In the counselor’s words, they have applied to the Supreme Court too, but they haven’t gotten an answer yet and it is possible that before the Supreme Court responds, the trial court of Ararat and Vayots Dzor will have already brought in a verdict.
Nelly BABAYAN
