VARDAN MALKHASIAN TO HENCEFORTH CRITICIZE AUTHORITIES MORE STRICTLY
Noyan Tapan
Jul 13 2007
YEREVAN, JULY 13, NOYAN TAPAN. The investigation of the written
materials of the case filed against Jirayr Sefilian, the coordinator
of the non-governmental civil initiative "In defence of liberated
territories", and others finished in the court sitting held on July
13. According to the documents presented by the defensive side, Jirayr
Sefilian was awarded with a nominal "Makarov" pistol by Samvel Babayan,
the Commander in Chief of the the Defence Army and Minister of Defence
of the Republic of Nagorno Karabakh on May 20, 1998, and as for the
permission for carrying arms, it is in force until May 21, 2008.
Mushegh Shushanian, the defender of defendant Vardan Malkhasian,
petitioned not to publish those documents, which infringe the
constitutional right of the confidentiality of correspondence of his
defendant. Vardan Malkhasian, who was accused of calling for ruining
the state authority, declared in his turn that he will, henceforth,
criticize state authorities more strictly: "I regret that I made a weak
and badly arranged speech in the hall of the School of Choreography."
The defensive side attracted the court’s attention to another document,
according to which the National Security Service gave instructions to
the investigators, who were not included in the investigation group,
to take part in the searches conducted within the frameworks of the
case. According to the defensive side, there is no "instruction"
conception in the Code of criminal trials. Moreover, the defensive
side insisted on its petition with regard to estimating the searches
with the participation of those investigators, who are not included
in the investigation group, as inadmissible evidence. The court will
refer to this petition after the investigation of all the evidence,
including the tesimonies of witnesses.
The stage of the cross examination of witnesses will begin in the
next court sitting, which is appointed for July 24.