DEFENSE IN BABAJANIAN TRIAL ACCUSES PROSECUTORS OF "MAKING UP CLAIMANT"
By Ruzanna Stepanian

Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
Aug. 31, 2006

The defense counsel for "Yerevan Zhamanak" newspaper editor Arman
Babajanian on trial for draft evasion and forgery on Thursday
challenged the integrity of the prosecution claiming that the case
against his client was started on the basis of a non-existing person’s
statement.

His remarks followed a statement by presiding judge Mnatsakan
Martirosian who read out a letter of whom investigators presented as
citizen A. Khachatrian, who had allegedly prompted the Prosecutor’s
Office that her neighbor, Arman Babajanian, was evading military
service.

Robert Grigorian, defending, said the letter did not bear a signature
and the prosecutors did not bother to verify its authenticity.

Zhanna Kotikian, prosecuting, objected to the defense’s claims,
saying that the letter had been properly signed, with the first
and last names of the person. "It is your fault that you did not
make sure that all measures were taken to identify the person and
establish where that person lived. The person may have changed the
place of residence by now," she said.

Lawyer Grigorian later said to RFE/RL that he had checked with
Babajanian’s neighbors and established that the person the prosecutors
allude to in fact does not exist. "We checked that Babajanian didn’t
have a neighbor by this name. Investigators know well this requirement
of the law and they didn’t even try to look for this person. They
are breaking the law deliberately," he said.

During the previous court sitting the editor of the "Yerevan Zhamanak"
newspaper pleaded guilty to the accusations of draft evasion.

Prosecutors say Babajanian stole and forged in 2002 legal documents
belonging to the family of a former friend living in the United States
to illegally avoid compulsory military service in Armenia.

According to their indictment read out in a Yerevan district court,
the documents included the marriage certificate of Vahe Abovian and his
wife Armine as well as the birth certificates of their two children.

Under Armenian law, young men under the age of 27 who have at least
two children are exempt from the two-year military duty. Babajanian,
30, studied at an Armenian religious seminary and had his service
deferred until 2001 before moving to California in 1998.

But while admitting to the forgery charge, Babajanian insisted that
he did not steal the documents from the Abovians. He claimed that
the latter willingly provided them to him.

On Thursday, Yerevan’s lower court heard the testimony of Armine
Arakelian.

She confirmed that Babajanian had forged the marriage certificate
and birth certificates for two children, but she denied having any
knowledge of how and for what purposes he did that. She confirmed
that she was never married to Babajanian and that her only husband
is Vahe Abovian. She also denied having a daughter named Anzhela
Arakelian as Babajanian’s documents present.

The court also read out witnesses’ testimony. In particular, Yerevan’s
Shengavit military enlistment office worker Tigran Harutiunian and
military commissioner Karen Khachatrian said they trusted Babajanian’s
mother who introduced herself as an employee of the presidential staff.

Khachatrian said in 2004 Babajanian’s mother produced a certificate
according to which her son studied in the United States, was married
to a women in the U.S. and had two children.

The court completed the examination of evidence and will proceed with
pleadings on September 4.