Grave condition of imprisoned deputies may not become subject of
political speculation, Galust Sahakian says

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 6, NOYAN TAPAN. The grave condition of the imprisoned
deputies of the National Assembly may not become a subject of political
speculation, the head of "RPA" parliamentary faction Galust Sahakian
said at the February 6 briefing at the RA National Assembly. He
considered as illegal the initiative of "Heritage" faction to convene a
special session for invalidating the NA decision on depriving the
deputies, who are accused under the case on March 1 event, of their
immunity. G. Sahakian said it is impossible to change a precautionary
measure during a trial, and the parliament may not assume powers of a
judicial body. In his opinion, prior to organizing a signature
collection, the parliamentary opposition should have been able to "make
the issue mature" through discussions and consultations with other
political forces.

As for the legislative amendment providing an opportunity to continue
court sittings in the absence of the accused persons, G. Sahakian noted
that such a norm existed in the legislation previously, and the reason
for using it again is conditioned by the necessity to help the court
break the impasse. He said that the trial on "the case of the seven"
must take place so that the guilt of the accused persons will be proven
or refuted. In his words, by standing up, an accused person shows his
respect for the values of the state rather than for the given judge.

To recap, since December of last year, the trial on "the case of the
seven" has been delayed 7 times for the motivation that the accused
persons did not stand up and thus displayed a disrespectful attitute to
court.