ARMENIAN PROSECUTOR GENERAL MEETS PACE CO-RAPPORTEURS

ArmInfo
2009-01-15 15:43:00

ArmInfo. Armenian Prosecutor General Agvan Hovsepyan met PACE
Monitoring Commission co-rapporteurs John Prescott and George
Colombier.

As press-service of Prosecutor General reported, over the meeting they
discussed in details the investigation course of the criminal case
on the fact of the mass disorders in Yerevan on 1-2 March as well as
the legal assessment of the actions made by the accused persons.

Prosecutor general said that in general 90 criminal cases regarding 11
people were directed to the courts. The investigation was made in the
reasonable terms and all the necessary conditions for human rights
respect were provided. The co-rapporteurs asked Hovsepyan to touch
on the "case of seven". The latter said the persons accused on this
case played the key part in organizing disorders, over which dozens
of cars were burnt and stores robbed, hundreds of people wounded
and 10 killed. He also explained that these persons were accused
not for murder but for organization of the mass disorders followed
by murders. He also added that the disorders and the rallies before
them cannot be considered as peaceful since the participants in them
were armed including with the metal bars. The customer and maker of
these metal constructions was disclosed.

A.Hovsepyan also gave some statistical data. According to him,
in course of the investigation criminal persecution and criminal
cases against 26 persons were suspended, 5 people were acquitted and
released in the court hall.

Speaking of the death of people as a result of application of special
means during March 1-2 incidents, the prosecutor general said that the
Prosecutor’s Office applied to a number of international organizations,
including the UN and OSCE Offices in Yerevan and US Embassy in Armenia
to clarify this issue, however, expert assistance was denied, this
being explained by the lack of such practice and experts. Written
contacts were established with an expert offered by CoE Commissioner
for Human Rights Thomas Hammarberg. The required materials related to
the applied special means were sent to the expert, however, the latter
said that identification was impossible. As the press-release of the
Prosecutor General’s Office said, the investigation against the persons
under pre-trial arrest, has been completed. However, the investigation
on the main criminal case is still underway, measures are being taken
to detect other accessorial persons, make legal assessment of Police’s
actions, and find out all the circumstances of the ten people’s death.