TER-PETROSSYAN: THE CASE OF SEVEN HAS HAD AN INGLORIOUS END

ArmInfo
2009-05-01 17:14:00

ArmInfo. During an opposition rally today the first president
of Armenia, the leader of the Armenian National Congress Levon
Ter-Petrosyan made a statement concerning the so-called Case of Seven.

The press service of the Armenian National Congress quotes
Ter-Petrosyan as saying: "Even though the Armenian National Congress
has issued a special statement regarding this problem on 2 April
of this year, I do not think it is unnecessary to explicate the
importance of that significant event once again in front of this
large audience. To understand the essence of the so-called "case of
seven" (in reality in should be "case of eleven"), we should first
try to understand why the case had been initiated. There can be no
doubt that the goal was to prove to the world that the opposition
was trying to take over with the use of violence, which then would
justify the authorities’ response, which included opening fire on
peaceful protesters, murdering ten people, and the declaration of
the state of emergency.

Accordingly, the court had been instructed to wrap up the case quickly
and to render the stipulated verdict, which would confirm the official
version of the events of 1 March. However, because of the perseverance
of the popular movement, the courageous stance of the political
prisoners, the competent strategy of the defense lawyers, as well as
the intervention of the international organizations, that goal was
stillborn. To save face, the authorities were forced to make serious
changes in the criminal code, then to reformulate the charges on the
bases of those changes and to dissolve the case into several cases.

With that, and particularly with the revoking of the charge under
Article 300 of the Criminal Code, the authorities in effect confessed
hat the "case of seven" was fabricated from the start and that there
has been no usurpation or even an attempt at usurpation of power
by the opposition. Separating the case of the murders, meanwhile,
amounts to a confession that the opposition’s actions had nothing
to do with them. Thus the official version of the events of 1 March
has finally gone up in smoke, and what we are left with is the blood
hilling crime committed by the authorities themselves, every detail
of which is going to be revealed sooner or later.

A question then arises as to what motivated the inadequate, or
actually barbaric, behavior of the authorities on 1 March. Perhaps
the mass disturbances organized by the opposition, which is what the
reformulated charge against the aforementioned seven individuals
is? Not only the fact of charging seven individuals as separate
organizers of the same mass disturbance is a legal ignorance or
downright absurd, there can be no doubt that these separated cases
are going to have the same fate as the "mother case," because
no representative of the opposition has so far been charged with
committing violent acts, burning cars or looting shops personally. Even
if the court succeeds in issuing verdicts violating the law, these
cases are going to go up in smoke in the European court.

As for who organized the mass disturbances, the burning of cars, and
the looting of shops, I have spoken about it in front of a smaller
audience during the first convention of the Armenian National Congress
on 21 December 2008, stating in particular the following: "Based on
information from reliable sources, we have determined that the burning
of cars, the looting of shops, and other provocations on 1 March have
been carried out by certain gangs, which have had 950 members between
them. These gangs were formed, equipped, and put under the command of
a center that was coordinating their activities by five high-ranking
officials and four oligarchs…. The central office of the Armenian
National Congress has made all the evidence about that available to the
Fact-finding Group, to the Commissioner on Human Rights of the Council
of Europe Thomas Hammarberg, and several foreign ambassadors stationed
in Armenia." The credibility of this information is confirmed by the
fact that the Armenian authorities have categorically forbidden the
Fact-finding Group to conduct an inspection at a Defense Ministry
warehouse, which has provided the clothing to the aforementioned
gangs. Respecting the confidentiality of the work of the Fact- finding
Group, we will refrain from making the names of the leaders of those
gangs public for now. These people are still holding high offices
and influential economic positions. There should be no doubt that the
day will come when we will make those names public, and everybody is
going to see the sort of despicable criminals, who are holding the
fate of Armenia and the Armenian nation in their hands."