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HUNGER STRIKES IN THE ISOLATION CELL AND OPPOSITE THE PRESIDENT’S
RESIDENCE

[09:09 pm] 14 April, 2006

Razmik Sargsyan, Musa Serobyan and Arayik Zaryan who are charged with
the murder of the Hovsep Mkrtoumyan and Roma Eghiazaryan, soldiers of
the Mataghis military detachment, continue their three-day hunger
strike in the Noubarashen criminal-executive institution.

According to the advocates, Razmik Sargsyan has sewn up his mouth so
that they will not feed him by force. And the mothers of the boys,
Hripsime Galajyan, Liana Zalyan, Julieta Sargsyan and Marine Serobyan
are continuing their two-day hunger strike opposite the President’s
residence. «The trial in the Court of Appeal is being held with
numerous illegal actions and violations of the criminal lawsuit. Our
children suffer the contempt of the judge and the prosecutor», the
letter to Robert Kocharyan says.

The advocates of the soldiers rendered a press conference today to
inform about the illegal course of the trial. According to advocate
Zarouhi Postanjyan, «On April 12 the court announced about the end of
the trial investigating only the testimony of three witnesses two of
which did not come to court. Only one of them gave testimony in court,
but later on he denied his own words announcing that he was not forced
to do anything but he is a coward and gave testimony for fear».

According to the advocates, the court refused their mediations. If
they took them into account, according to the advocates, they would
secure the multi-sided and unbiased investigation of the case. `In
particular, the court took no notice of the floppy disk which includes
the interpretation of the talks by cell phone of the commanders of the
military detachment during the years 2003 and 2004. This diskette
would clarify the relation of the commanders to the murder. The
rejection was accounted for by the pretext that the diskette cannot be
opened. Besides, the court was not interested in the fact how the
results of the forensic examination changed during the course of the
trial. First they said that the body found was killed two days ago,
and then they claimed it was killed 14 days ago,’ the advocates say.

By the way, according to the advocates, during the trial when Razmik
Sargsyan said he was beaten not only by the Prosecution inspectors but
also by Gagik Jhangiryan, representative of the prosecution Anahit
Yeghiazaryan said, `It’s an honor for you.’