CONVICTING TO LIFE SENTENCE THE MOST HORRIBLE MOMENT, EX-CONVICT SAYS

Panorama.am
16:59 27/02/2007

Late last year the Appeal Court of Armenia released three young men,
Razmik Sargsyan, Musa Serobyan and Araik Zalyan, from arrest. The three
were accused in a murder of two military servants in Mataghisi military
unit and were in Nubarashen prison since 2004. The first instance
court of Siunik sentenced them to 15 years of imprisonment and Review
Court to life sentence. Panorama.am took an exclusive interview from
Araik Zalyan, who was convicted to life sentence. The reason we took
the interview is that the ex-convicts were again invited to military
prosecutor’s office and were instructed not to leave the Republic.

– After three years of cruel trials, are you psychologically ready
to go through he same way?

– I am ready, moreover, I am bellicose because I have nothing to fear.

– Do you hope that the investigation will run on the right track?

– No, until the case is in the military prosecutor’s office. The
illegality continues.

– According to you, what is the reason that the main perpetrators
are not discovered?

– They know very well the names of the murderers. They simply do not
want to "name" them and imprison. I cannot say if this is the only
reason or not but, as far as I know, he is their man.

– When did you learn that you were indicted in murder?

– We were told that our parents came and were asked to go down. Instead
of our parents, we were met by the investigators of military
prosecutor’s office with fists.

– Why with fists? Were you treated badly?

– Already in Mataghisi, we were treated as if we were enemies. They
put handcuffs on us, put on our T-shirts on our heads and made us sit
into the car. We were later moved to Martakert. Later we were taken
to Martakert police, after that to Stepanakert police.

– Were you treated badly at that time, too?

– We were treated cruelly. We were hungry and thirsty.

They we were instructed that either we have to make a testimony on
someone else, whose names they were mentioning (shopkeeper Edo..) or
you have to make a testimony against yourselves. We were treated the
same way until we were moved to Yerevan. Then we were given sanction
and the attitude changed.

– How were you treated during the trial?

– They could not abuse us physically because we had an advocate but
they made psychological pressures.

– What can you say about the decision of the Appeal court? Were you
waiting for such a decision?

– An innocent person is always waiting that the door will open and he
will be released. We did not know if that could be the Appeal Court
or some political figures but we were waiting.

– Which was the most horrible moment in the course of these three
years?

– At the beginning we did not understand what was going on. Every
moment we thought they would come and tell us go. But when we were
convicted to life sentence at Siunik district court, the moment was
horrible. We realized what country we live in.

– Did you know the murdered boys?

– I knew one of them – Roman Yeghiazaryan. We were in "quarantine"
together. With the other boy, we were taught marching. Then we moved
to different units.

– In your opinion, why the opinions of the relatives of murdered boys
differ. The uncle of Roman Yeghiazaryan believes that you are guilty
whereas the parents of Hovsep Mkrtumyan believe that you are innocent.

– In fact, both are sure that we are not guilty.

Simply, Roman Yeghiazaryan’s uncle is a person who can sell the blood
of his brother’s son. At the beginning, they named Ivan Grigoryan
and later blamed us.

– What would you add at the end of the conversation?

– I would like people to pay attention to how many are in prison,
who are innocent.