PROSECUTOR INFORMED

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[06:09 pm] 15 January, 2009

Press release of the RA General Prosecutor’s office The RA Prosecutor
General Aghvan Hovsepyan received today the delegation headed by
Co-reporters of the PACE Monitoring Committee John Prescott and
George Colombie. The issues discussed during the meeting related
to the preliminary investigation of the riots that took place in
Yerevan on March 1-2 of 2008, the charges pressed against the accused
and the legal evaluations. The RA Prosecutor General informed that
all the accused under arrest during the preliminary investigation
had been investigated during the first six months of preliminary
investigation and 90 criminal cases for 111 people had been sent to
the court. Upon the request of the co-reporters, touching upon the
charges pressed against the 7 accused of the case under investigation
in the Yerevan criminal court based on the 1st part of article 300
and the 3rd part of article 225 of the RA Criminal Code, the RA
Prosecutor General informed that according to the evidence from the
preliminary investigation, the riots that took place in the capital
did not end in themselves for the organizers; rather, they were
a means for state appropriation. The seven defendants of the case
based on the information of the preliminary investigation-Alexander
Arzumanyan, Hakob Hakobyan, Miasnik Malkhasyan, Sasun Mikayelyan,
Shant Harutyunyan, Grigor Voskerchyan and Suren Sirunyan-have played
a key role in the riots. Hovsepyan made it clear that the mentioned
people were charged not for committing murders, but for organizing the
riots that led up to the murders. It was also mentioned that the riots
and the rallies that preceded them could not be considered peaceful
because there was enough evidence showing that the participants were
armed. The prosecutors of the preliminary investigation weighed the
evidence as substantiated and sufficient to send the case to court
where they will be examined during the trial. The RA Prosecutor
General noted that the trial has not begun and it is hard to predict
how the court will evaluate the evidence. The RA Prosecutor General
also mentioned a number of statistics according to which 26 people
are no longer under persecution and their cases have been annulled,
while five have received a fair trial. Touching upon the murders
registered as a result of special measures used by the police, the
Prosecutor General informed that the Prosecutor’s office has appealed
to a number of international organizations with the request for help
in clarifying the issue, but all organizations, including the UN,
the OSCE Yerevan office, the U.S. Embassy of Armenia have refused
to send experts stating that they don’t have practice, experts or
equipment. There has been correspondence with the expert proposed
by CE Human Rights Commissioner Thomas Hammarberg. The preliminary
investigation has ended with the accused under preliminary arrest,
while the preliminary investigation of the main criminal case at
the special investigative service is still in progress and measures
are being taken to reveal others who were involved in the crime,
as well as give legal evaluations to police actions and reveal all
circumstances for the ten murders.