NEW TURN IN NUBARASHEN PEDOPHILE’S CASE: PROSECUTOR DEMANDS SENTENCING PEDOPHILE TO 1.5-YEAR IMPRISONMENT

ArmInfo
2010-05-13 00:12:00

ArmInfo. The trial against Levon Avagyan, a teacher at Nubarashen
Boarding School N 11, charged with sexual harassment took place in
Yerevan on May 12. By the decision of Judge Artur Gabrielyan, the
defendant’s motion on accelerated proceedings was satisfied.

Prosecutor Karen Batikyan said in his speech that the punishments
applied by L.Avagyan with respect to the special school pupils cannot
help amazing by their cruelty. According to the witness testimonies,
the most frequently used punishment was the so-called "plane": the
teacher made the 10-12-year old children sit on their hunkers with
their hands widespread, and hold the hole lesson in this pose. The
teacher applied other punishments as well. For instance, he made the
children stand on one foot in the corridor at night. As regards the
children, who tried to resist his cruelty, he exerted psychological
pressure on them. In particular, when Mariam Gevorgyan, one of the
pupils, promised to tell the school headmaster about Levon Avagyan’s
indecent actions, Avagyan made her spend the night in the room of
children suffering from uroclepsia.

The prosecutor pointed out that the circumstance aggravating the
defendant’s guilt is the fact that the given actions were applied with
respect to helpless children. For instance, Diana Lazarian, one of
the victims of the teacher, has been suffering from oligophrenia
since childhood. Taking into account the witness testimonies,
Batikyan demanded finding Avagyan guilty under Parts 1 and 2 of
Article 142 (sexual abuse against minors) and sentencing him to
1.5-year imprisonment. The next trial is scheduled for May 19.