Legal issues

The document entitled “Involvement and Participation of the Army in Post-Election and March 1 Events” presents existing and incontestable facts testifying to the participation of the RA Ministry of Defense Armed Forces in the March 1 events.

The legal representatives of the March 1 victims demand that the SIS be obliged to conduct an effective investigation and resolve the murder cases of their relatives. Judge Armen Khachatryan, who is considering the appeal, will declare his decision on May 24.

Two knife injuries have been found on Vahan Khalafyan’s body. The autopsy results have definitely confirmed the fact that the young man had been tortured. However, it is still not clear from the results how the young man received the stabs which resulted in his death. According to the Special Investigatory Service, the examination results only provide the possible scenario that Khalafyan might have stabbed himself. It was probably predictable that the examination results would be such. Thus, SIS tries to confirm the statement of RA Police Chief Alik Sargsyan that Khalafyan has committed suicide, so that the policemen will not be charged with the murder.

Yesterday, PACE President Mevlut Cavusoglu summarized his visit to Armenia during a press conference held in the National Assembly. He said, “We expect the RA authorities to present a detailed list of all the reforms which should be carried out according to the recommendations of PACE, alongside with corresponding deadlines. Despite of that, there are still two issues, which haven’t been solved in their entirety yet: first of all, it is unacceptable that nobody has been charged yet with the 10 deaths of March 1: public confidence will not be reestablished until justice is brought to individuals. In addition, from PACE’s point of view the problem, relating to those who have been imprisoned as a consequence of the March 1 events, has not been solved at all. In particular, in connection to this, I have raised the problem of Mr. Pashinyan.” He stated that he raised these points during his meeting with the authorities. Cavusoglu also mentioned, that yesterday, he had an emotive meeting with the relatives of the March 1 victims. “Cavusoglu told that he raised our concerns during his meeting with Serzh Sargsyan, even what regards the issue of political prisoners. He underlined that he has mentioned Nikol Pashinyan’s name as a political prisoner and expressed his concern in this regard,” our reporter was told to by Alla Hovhannisyan, the mother of Tigran Khachatryan, one of the victims of March 1, after their meeting with the PACE President. During his meetings, Cavusoglu mentioned that the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Thomas Hammerberg is also seriously concerned about Pashinyan and other political prisoners. “Cavusoglu told that they are engaged in the issue of the political prisoners, they actively discuss that problem in all their meetings, and in particular, he personally raises the issue of releasing Nikol Pashinyan everywhere. He showed us some papers from his folder and said, “look, these are documents concerning him; it was in English, I saw the surname of Pashinyan,” our reporter was told by Sargis Qloyan, the father of one of the victims of March 1, Gor Qloyan.

First of all, the report presents the juridical requirement, which forbids usage of the Army during political events. Then it presents all the so far discovered facts testifying the participation of the Army in the events. “The presented facts make it obvious that the RA authorities do everything possible to deny the fact of having used the Army’s defense technology, transportation means and staff on March 1 of 2008, before the state of emergency was declared,” the members of the fact-finding group summarized in their report.

According to our sources, Hovsepyan had made an attempt to start a prosecution process against the corresponding news sources. He was very clearly told, however, that he does not realize what news sources he is dealing with. Thus, Hovsepyan’s mission has failed. A number of Russian news sources had not only publicized the fortunes of millions and billions of Dollars of several RA top-ranking officials, but they had also written in detail about how these officials made such fortunes. The RA Prosecutor’s office didn’t start a prosecution process against those publications, even though the matter concerned serious criminal accusation and specific people who have robbed Armenia.

Thus, the RA Police has carried out the plan about which we had written approximately one month ago; instead of prosecuting RA SIS investigator Gagik Margaryan, who attacked Shamshyan on February 24, they are beginning proceedings against the photo-journalist on charges of false testimony.

The African adventures of the Kocharyans were not news to the readers of “Haykakan Zhamanak” at all. Before publishing the well-known photographs, the issue of August 19, 2009 of “Haykakan Zhamanak” newspaper contained a news item with the following content, as you know: “According to our sources, on Friday Robert Kocharyan, together with his son Sedrak, were among the passengers of the Yerevan-Dubai flight (…) According to our sources, Kocharyan has left for Tanzania for hunting.” As you can see, this news item, which many people considered “slander”, has been eloquently proven to be true over time. I am saying this also for those who are skeptical about the information provided by our sources. So the same source, which provided us with the information about Kocharyans’ Tanzanian hunting, which has now been confirmed by a number of facts, had earlier handed over information to our newspaper, on the basis of which the following news item was published in the February 6, 2009 issue of HZH: “А few days before New Year’s, local Dubai police arrested Robert Kocharyan’s younger son, Levon Kocharyan, while in a drunken stupor. According to credible sources, arrested along with the younger Kocharyan was the son of well-known Moscow prosecutor Gena and two others.

While many attempts to mediate on behalf of Kocharyan were made, local law enforcement released him only after four days in custody and only after demanding various documents. According to our sources, Levon Kocharyan was arrested for disorderly conduct.” As it is known, a month after releasing this news, the Kocharyans sued our newspaper with a lot of fanfare. Unconquerable hero Sedrak personally took the claim, demanding that our newspaper pay damages in the amount of 16 million Drams to the court. All of the appeals during that judicial saga were rejected, and our ability to obtain evidence was restricted. As a result, the court, sustaining the Kocharyans’ claim partially, ordered HZH to pay 3.3 million Drams and to retract the aforementioned report, which we did in the issue of March 3 of “Haykakan Zhmanak” newspaper. In general, the claim by the Kocharyans in this respect was very peculiar, and we have touched upon that issue before.

What is more important was the Kocharyans stating in their claim that we had undermined the reputation of Robert Kocharyan, Armenia, and the Armenian people by publishing that news item. Let each of the readers judge for himself how much their statement corresponds to reality. But there is just one thing, which I cannot but mention. After publishing the Tanzanian photographs of the Kocharyans, “Haykakan Zhamanak” carried out a survey on its website. The respondents were asked to answer the following question: “Do the photographs which appeared on the internet of Robert Kocharyan and his son Sedrak Kocharyan with the killed animals undermine the international reputation of Armenia and the Armenian people.” Seventy-five percent of the 1629 respondents chose the answer: “Yes, they do.” As the well-known professor Khachikyan would say: "You and those like you discredit our Republic!"

The names mentioned are those of the son of RA State Revenue Committee Head Gagik Khachatryan and of the son of Deputy Director of the National Security Service Hrachya Harutyunyan (‘Krakem Hrach’ is his nickname), and that of the younger son of Robert Kocharyan. According to the same sources, when shots were fired after the argument, the policemen of the Kotayk police department arrived at the scene. However, finding out who the participants of the argument were, the policemen left. Yesterday, when we tried to get an official comment on the incident from the RA Police, we were told that the working day was finished and they would answer our questions the following day (today).

The SIS, getting back to its true style of work, has made an attempt to cover up the incident, blaming Arthur Sakunts, coordinator of the Helsinki Citizens Assembly Vanadzor office (HCAV), for providing false information to the press. That story is in reference to Norayr Chilyan and Arayik Arakelyan, who left Armenia upon their release from the police station, after being taken there together with Vahan Khalafyan. The SIS makes reference to the words of Norayr Chilyan’s wife and Arayik Arakelyan’s wife and mother, and tries to convince people that the young men were not tortured. And this is when Sakunts’ statements appeared in the media on April 15, but the SIS turned a blind eye to them for 5 days, until the young men could leave Armenia; and now the SIS is trying to settle the problem by referring to the young men’s relatives.

According to the Police, 38 people are charged with this case. The Police refuse to name the owners of the cars that were at the shoot-out, noting that not all the owners of the cars have been identified.

Yesterday, representatives of the RA Special Investigation Services (SIS) said that they have already received the results of fingerprint and trace analyses but they did not clarify what the documents stated. According to our information, however, neither Vahan Khalafan’s fingerprints, nor those of any one else’s, have been found on the knife by which Vahan Khalafyan supposedly committed suicide. This means that somebody wiped the knife clean. We can now state that Police Chief Alik Sargsyan will have to apologize yet again, this time to Khalafyan’s relatives. After making statements that were proven to be false, he had apologized but continued to insist on the suicide version. Now, he will have to say who wiped the fingerprints off the knife, and why.

The latter are charged with the death of 24 year old Vahan Khalafyan. What does this indifference mean? As an answer to this question the RA Police, which supervises the “02” TV program, said that we should ask the Special Investigation Services because it is the SIS that is investigating the case. Yesterday we received the answer from the SIS. Accordingly, the “02” TV program “is under the supervision of another department and has no connection with the SIS.”

Pashinyan’s attorneys, Lusine Sahakyan and Yervand Varosyan, received the decision yesterday. The attorneys demanded that the Court of Appeals repeal Pashinyan’s sentence and release him. The Prosecutor’s office had appealed to the court to increase the severity of the political prisoner’s sentence of seven years. Nikol Pashinyan’s attorney Lusine Sahakyan said to our reporter that they had predicted that the Court of Appeals would have refused to consider the case. “We would have been surprised if the court made another decision and had been guided by the law,” said the attorney. She also said that the preliminary appeal has already been taken to the European Court. In the nearest future the main appeal of the political prisoner will also be sent to the EU Court.

Sargsyan’s former secretary, Lusia Aivazyan, received a suspended sentence of 1.5 years. They are accused of leaking documents carrying Order #0038 signed on February 23, 2008 by former RA Minister of Defense, Michael Harutyunyan. This order proves that the RA Armed forces were being prepared in anticipation of the events of March 1.