DEFENDER: "WE WILL NOT TAKE PART IN FALSE AND ILLEGAL ACTIVITIES"

Panorama.am
13:50 17/03/2009

The court trial on the seven arrested will be conducted without
defenders. "Our rights and the rights of our defendants are being
violated continuously, hence we can not enter the hall and continue
the process. This is a critical measure that we have taken but we can
not implement our professional duties unless the situation there is
not changed," said Varduhi Elbakyan, a member of defendant’s group
on the seven arrested case. She said that they have "only physical
presence in the trial." According to her they will not get surprised
if the court makes a decision to hold a trial without the defenders.

"Yesterday when Sasun Mikaelyan and his defender were not present
the court made a decision to pass to the next stage. That is to say
court trial has been conducted without them," she said. "We are no
willing to take part in these false and illegal activities. And we
will not unless we feel that the court is ready to act in the frames
of legislative field," said Varduhi Elbakyan. To the question whether
they are going to apply to the European Court of Human Rights, she
said that they have applied to the court for many times. According
to the defender our state is going to have difficulties because the
strongest sanctions will be defined.