JAILED SOLDIERS’ LAWYERS FACING PROSECUTION
By Anna Saghabalian and Emil Danielyan

Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
Oct 25 2006

State prosecutors have launched criminal proceedings against the
defense attorneys of three Armenian soldiers sentenced to life
imprisonment on what local and international human rights groups see
as trumped-up murder charges, it emerged on Wednesday.

Zaruhi Postanjian, Ashot Atoyan and Stepan Voskanian are being
investigated for allegedly showing contempt for three judges of the
Armenian Court of Appeals that handed down the ruling last May.

It is not clear when the judges lodged a formal complaint with the
Office of the Prosecutor-General. The latter opened a criminal
case against the lawyers on October 10, the day after the Court
of Cassation, Armenia’s highest body of criminal justice, agreed
to consider their appeal against the extremely controversial life
sentences.

The lawyers strongly deny the contempt of court accusations that
could be leveled against them and see the prosecutors’ move as a
retaliation for their vocal support for the jailed soldiers. "They
are thereby trying to force us to abandon the case," Voskanian told
RFE/RL. He said it is the three judges that repeatedly insulted the
defense lawyers during the appeal proceedings and must be prosecuted.

The extraordinary criminal proceedings bring a new twist to the saga
of Razmik Sargsian, Musa Serobian and Araik Zalian. The three young
men were originally convicted of murdering two fellow servicemen
in Nagorno-Karabakh and sentenced to 15 years in prison by a local
court of first instance in April 2005. They protested their innocence
throughout the trial and appealed against the verdict only to see it
toughened to life imprisonment by the appeals court.

Military prosecutors allege that Sargsian, Serobian and Zalian murdered
the two other soldiers and dumped their bodies into a reservoir in
northern Karabakh in December 2003 following a brawl over a food
parcel that was delivered to one of the servicemen. The accusations
are based on Sargsian’s pre-trial testimony in which he admitted to
this version of events.

However, Sargsian subsequently retracted the testimony, saying that
he incriminated himself and his comrades under brutal torture. The
two other defendants, who never pleaded guilty to the charges, also
claim to have been mistreated in custody.

Both courts refused to investigate the alleged torture, denied by the
prosecutors, leading the defense lawyers and Armenian human rights
activists to denounce the trials as a parody of justice.

Ruben Sahakian, chairman of Armenia’s Chamber of Advocates, expressed
serious concern at the case on Wednesday, saying that the leadership
of the bar association will meet soon to discuss it. "We will adopt
a statement during that meeting," Sahakian told RFE/RL.

The case has also had a resonance outside Armenia, with Human Rights
Watch finding the torture allegations "credible" and urging the Court
of Cassation to give the young men a fair trial.

"Human Rights Watch believes that it is very important that … a
prompt investigation into the allegations is ordered, and that all
measures are put in place to ensure that any conviction based on
evidence coerced under torture does not stand," the New York-based
group’s director for Europe and Central Asia, Holly Cartner, said in
a September 12 letter to the Armenian Court of Cassation.

Aaron Rhodes, executive director of the Vienna-based International
Helsinki Federation for Human Rights, echoed those concerns in a
similar letter sent to Yerevan three days later. "The investigation
into the murders, and the subsequent trials, were marred with
irregularities that raise questions about Armenian prosecutors’ and
judiciary’s professional qualifications and commitment to international
standards for a fair trial," Rhodes wrote.

The defense trio suspects that both murders were committed by Captain
Ivan Grigorian, the Karabakh Armenian commander of the army unit
where the dead soldiers served. According to their version of events,
Grigorian beat one of the soldiers to death and killed the other
after the latter refused to "confess" to the crime.

The commander of the Karabakh army, Lieutenant-General Seyran Ohanian,
lent more credence to these suspicions when he wrote to Armenia’s
chief military prosecutor in early 2004 and asked him not to bring
charges against Grigorian. Ohanian argued that the officer had greatly
contributed to the Armenian military victory over Azerbaijan.