"CASE OF SEVEN" AT APPEALS COURT

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06:55 pm | July 31, 2009 | Politics

Today the prisoners charged with the "Case of Seven" expressed
their appeals/complaints at different halls of the Appeals Court at
different hours.

The advocates of Sasun Mikayelyan, Myasnik Malkhasyan, Alexander
Arzumanyan, Suren Sirunyan and Hakob Hakobyan were demanding from
the judges to reverse the judgments of the first instance courts and
reach the verdict of "not guilty".

Hovik Arsenyan, advocate of MP Myasnik Malkhasyan who is charged with
organizing mass disturbances and was released by amnesty, said that
there was no evidence in the criminal case to show that he was guilty.

"These trials were politically-oriented from the start," said Myasnik
Malkhasyan, adding that he would not like to take responsibility for
things that he had not done. According to him, he was first arrested
for using drugs and then that was denied.

Another advocate Vaghinak Gevorgyan also defended MP Sasun Mikayelyan,
who was sentenced to 8 years in prison by the first instance court
of the Kotayk region.

In the beginning of the trial, Hovik Arsenyan presented a challenge
petition to prosecutor Aram Amirzadyan, mentioning that he also helped
make sure that the other witness, Tatul Karapetyan, did not testify
in court and claim his testimony during the preliminary inquiry.

The prosecutor considered the petition groundless and the trio of
judges, including Armen Danielyan, Mher Arghamanyan and Melik Sargsyan,
rejected the petition after coming out of the consultations room.

Then advocate Vaghinak Gevorgyan presented a challenge petition to
judges Mher Arghamanyan and Armen Danielyan and explained that the
reason for the petition was that the two judges had examined many
cases by Part 1, Article 225 of the Criminal Code in 2008 and 2009
and acknowledged him guilty, meaning that the two judges were biased
and that it will be expressed in this case as well.

The prosecutor considered the petition groundless and the trio of
judges rejected it too.

Sasun Mikayelyan was acknowledged builty based on Part 2, Article
235 and Part 1, Article 225 and was sentenced to 8 years in prison.

The judges must reach verdicts for the cases of Alexander Arzumanyan,
Suren Sirunyan and Hakob Hakobyan by the end of the working day. They
were acknowledged guilty by Part 1, Article 225 and were released
by amnesty.

There were many people gathered in front of the courtroom today,
including opposition activists with photos of former political
prisoneres and the demand to declare them not guilty.