Today, during the trial on the criminal case against Vardges Gaspari, an Armenian National Congress (ANC) activist, in the trial court of the Kentron and Nork Marash communities, it became known that the police had sent a note to the court and had assured that the video of what had happened on October 20, 2011, when the incident had taken place, was not preserved, since they had made another recording on the film and the digital copy was preserved for no longer than 6 months. However, during a conversation with www.aravot.am, Vardges Gaspari assured that he had applied to the police when only 1-2 months had passed after the incident to get the video, but they hadn’t give it again. In his words, “This case has no legal grounds. If they need it, they make some things disappear. In this case, in particular, we demanded from the police their very video shot on October 20. Before that, we filed a motion regarding why the investigator had not requested that video. The investigator directly said in the court that he had applied at the time to get the video. After our claims, on November 7, he really applied; the police responded that if there was such a material, they would give it to us in a month. So, the police either couldn’t find that material inside or was just unwilling to give it. Then I applied with a few letters, by the way, directly assessing the police officers and the attorney’s office as a party that behaved like the underworld, criminal world, as they avoided presenting evidence. They responded that there was no such material; they said that the video had not been found there. Then I sent the police officer’s picture, in which he was filming, they responded that yes, the picture of that cameraman was there, but it couldn’t be seen that he was filming in the given place on the given day. I sent the video to mass media, which proved that he had filmed in the given place on the given day. In the end, they responded that it would be given only to the court, if it was requested. Now they say that they have not preserved it. The police and the attorney’s office behave just like criminals. These law-enforcers can be put in the Nubarashen Correctional Facility with clear conscience and those Nubarashen scums can be made an attorney or a police officer; nothing will change because of that.” The prosecution should make an accusatory statement at the next court session. In response to our question whether he could make any prediction what would be in the accusatory statement, Vardges Gaspari said that it was just a matter of need, “As the witnesses said at first that I had hit a police officer with my elbow and then, for some reason, they remembered that I hadn’t hit, perhaps, I had moved and my elbow had accidentally touched him, whereas they claimed at first that the police officer had suffered a brain concussion because of the blow and he had been taken to the 3rd clinic, then sent to Armenia Medical Center for diagnosis. We made a legal request to those medical institutions who had been brought, when they had been brought, who had been examined, but they hadn’t responded to that either, because the whole state apparatus works against the citizen as a criminal. I think that in case of such a crime, the lawsuit should really be called a lawsuit against the government, a lawsuit against theRepublic ofArmenia and this criminal government, which we have been tolerating so far.”
Hripsime JEBEJYAN
