The trial.

[Guest]

RFE/RL Armenia Report - 01/27/2001

 

A leading parliamentarian from the People's Party of Armenia (HZhK),

Emma Khudabashian, tells "Aravot" that a real threat of death sentence

may force Nairi Hunanian and other parliament assassins to tell the

court who was behind them. "Organizers [of the parliament shootings]

continue to maintain links with Nairi. The people will soon learn

about them. Nobody can and should be saved," she says.

[Guest]

Only I am not sure how credible Nayiri's testimony could be under those circumstances.

 

Nayiri was a combinator in his younger years, while a student of YSU, and I don't think people like him change.

 

I recall him implicating a whole bunch of people when he got arrested. Including Haik Babukhanyan, which was total absurd. Then, in the same spirit of his typical absurdism, he implicated his fellow classmate and former friend.

 

If convicted, and pushed to "confess," Nayiri would implicate anybody, including perhaps those who have stepped on his foot in a public bus.

 

Besides, he will come up with a new theory (or renovate his old one) about cleaning Armenia, and will implicate anyone who doesn't fit in his theory.

 

 

If

[Guest]

MJ, I opened the thread to follow the trial news and used the first article I came accross.

[Guest]

No complains. Just some character assassination.

[Guest]

Who's testimony we must trust then?

[Guest]

I suspect we won't ever have a credible testimony on this matter.

[Guest]

Agreed. Would it be good or bad for Armenia if we new the truth about what realy happened?

[Guest]

Depands on what is the truth.

[Guest]

quote:

---

Originally posted by MJ:

No complains. Just some character assassination.

Depends on what is the truth.

---

Now you're being unfair. Commit a character suicide to save our time.

[Guest]

Who are you trying to indulge?

[Guest]

What's the difference. You advised me not to take sides, while obviously taking sides yourself. A terrible mistake MJ

[Guest]

MJ, el hets ches khaghum?

[Guest]

RFE/RL Armenia Report - 02/15/2001

15 February 2001

 

NEWS BRIEFS

 

Parliament Gang Trial Adjourns After Brief Session

 

The trial of 13 men prosecuted in connection with the October 1999

shootings in the Armenian parliament adjourned on Thursday less than

two hours after its long-awaited start. The next court session will be

held within one week. The formal reason for the delay, cited by Judge

Samvel Uzunian, was the absence of one of the defendants and two

defense lawyers. All five members of the armed group that had gunned

down eight senior officials, including Armenia's prime minister and

parliament speaker, appeared before a district court in Yerevan to the

accompaniment of taunts from the victims' relatives.

 

Some two hundred supporters of the assassinated officials gathered in

the meantime outside the court building in the city center to demand

the death sentence for the attackers. The area surrounding the

building was cordoned off by special police units. Security was

particularly tight inside the courthouse with several dozen armed

police guarding eleven defendants locked up in five adjacent cages.

 

Some relatives of the murdered officials shouted abuse at Nairi

Hunanian and four other arrested gunmen, including his brother Karen

and uncle Vram Galstian, as they made their way into the dock. The

opening court session mostly involved a check of the defendants'

identity and other formalities. Hunanian, making his first public

appearance since October 28, 1999, looked calm and self-confident

while answering the judge's and lawyers' questions.

 

Hunanian went on to demand that one of the four members of the

prosecution team, Hakob Martirosian, be barred from taking part in the

trial, accusing him of violating the due process of law. "I want him

to be called up instead as a witness of illegalities committed during

the investigation," he charged. The demand was rejected by the judge.

 

Hunanian claimed last April that the investigators had forced him

implicate an aide to President Robert Kocharian and several other

well-known persons in the killings. The 35-year-old former journalist

is expected to defend the bloody raid on the National Assembly and

blame the assassinated officials for Armenia's socioeconomic

problems. He has refused to hire defense counsels, preferring to

himself make his case.

 

Tension at the hearings rose when one of the three police officers

charged with allowing the gunmen to smuggle weapons into the chamber,

demanded that Judge Uzunian order his release. "Don't force me to sit

with this scum," the defendant, Armen Gasparian, exclaimed, pointing

to the other accused. The petition was turned down.

 

Emotions also ran high outside the building where an angry crowd

demanded a tough verdict against Hunanian and his henchmen. The

gathering was organized by the Yerkrapah Union of Nagorno-Artsax war

veterans, which was founded by Vazgen Sarkisian, the slain prime

minister. Among the demonstrators were members of Yerkrapah's

children's organization dressed in khaki uniforms. "Death to the

criminals," read one of the black banners held by the boys aged

between 10 and 15.

 

The trial followed a year-long criminal inquiry conducted by military

prosecutors. Relatives and friends of the victims accuse the

prosecutors of failing to solve the case. Aram Sarkisian, the brother

of the assassinated premier, repeated the charge on Thursday, saying

that he still believes the crime was masterminded by other

"influential forces" and not Hunanian.

 

Sarkisian spoke to reporters, standing amidst the protesters. He said:

"I won't be taking part in the trial. I consider myself Asian and find

it impossible to be in the same the same room with the person who

killed my brother."

 

Sarkisian, who succeeded his older brother as prime minister and was

sacked by Kocharian in May, was joined by several prominent members of

his cabinet, including former defense minister Vagharshak Harutiunian,

former minister for industrial infrastructures Vahan Shirkhanian, and

Albert Bazeyan, the recently sacked mayor of Yerevan.

 

"We are demanding justice and not putting pressure on the court,"

Bazeyan said. "If it turns out that some governing circles were

involved in or knew about the crime they will have to be brought to

account," he added, in a remark highlighting some Yerkrapah leaders'

continuing suspicion of Kocharian and his allies.

 

(Karine Kalantarian, Emil Danielyan)

[Guest]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Berj:
MJ, el hets ches khaghum?

---

You have to raise the ante.

[Guest]

Armenia's future

[Berj]

RFE/RL Armenia Report - 03/02/2001

 

2 March 2001

 

NEWS BRIEFS

 

Leader Of Gunmen Acts To Prolong Trial

 

The Armenian media, lawyers and experts continue to debate the

postponement of the October 27 trial. The public is also seen to be

obsessed with the trial of the gunmen who killed eight high ranking

politicians in the Armenian Parliament. But opinions on the decision

taken by the judge, Samvel Uzunian to postpone the trial for 25

working days are sharply divided. Some legal experts think that Samvel

Uzunian has violated the Criminal Code, others, including some

representatives of the prosecutor's team, say that the law was not

violated.

 

Judge Samvel Uzunian has tried to act according to all the provisions

protecting the legal rights of the defendant, outlined in the criminal

code. In Armenian, as well as international legal standards, there are

important privileges for the protection of the rights of the

defendants. The provision of the Armenian Criminal Code has 26 points

outlining the rights and privileges of the defendant, one of which

says that the defendant has a right to study the materials of the

pre-trial investigation and procedural court actions. There is also a

provision allowing the defendant to study all materials of his case

after the preliminary investigation is ended.

 

During the court session of February 28, Ashot Sarkissian, the

representative of the elder son of Karen Demirchian, Samvel

Demirchian, was the only lawyer who asked the court not to give

permission to the gang leader Nairi Hunanian to study the case. He

claimed that the law has no provision for the rights of the

defendant. But the law has clearly outlined the rights of the accused,

including the right to study the materials of the investigation and

other court procedures.

 

According to Armenian law, the accused person is a defendant when his

or her case enters the court, which means that in Hunanian's case

judge Uzunian has acted according to the law. The experts who follow

the Nairi Hunanian case say that the defendant can use any discrepancy

in the actions of the judge to postpone the trial or to refuse to

testify. Nairi Hunanian has several other options to prolong the trial

even after the final verdict is announced by judge Samvel Uzunian if

he finds any mistake in the court procedures.

 

Observers suggest that Nairi Hunanian has already started to use his

options. The fact that he asked for additional time (more than one

month) to study the case indicates that he will use all necessary

steps to prolong and complicate the trial, because he had plenty of

time to study all the materials relevant to his trial. Experts say

that Nairi Hunanian could have studied the case since last July, when

the preliminary investigation ended. Some experts are inclined to

think that Nairi Hunanian is knowledgeable enough to use all his

options outlined in the Criminal Code to prolong his trial until the

Armenian Parliament abolishes capital punishment, a condition that

Armenia has to meet as a member of the Council of Europe.

 

(Karine Kalantarian)

[MJ]

I don't want the future. I want something now.

[MJ]

I like the process. Maybe it can lead to a judicial reform in Armenia?

[Berj]

Well MJ, I want it too, actually, more than anybody else in this forum. However, considering the simultaneous start of the trial and the new round of Karabagh talks, I think what we gonna have now is another war with Azerbaijan. And I doubt that the army will fight the way it did in 1991-1994, because of the shaken trust.

[Berj]

MJ it can't, because the process itself is a complete denial of that possibility.