Epress.am News from Armenia
Two witnesses were examined in a Tavush regional court on Tuesday in the case of rifle platoon commander Artak Nazaryan, who died on a military base on Jul. 27, 2010 — Artak Hovhannisyan, who said that he wasn’t involved in the investigation, and Rafayel Evoyan, who described incidents that had nothing to do with his pre-trial testimony. This news was conveyed to Epress.am by Helsinki Association for Human Rights representative Ruben Martirosyan (pictured, right), who is also representing the victim’s legal successor in the case.
“Artak Hovhannisyan refused to sign off on six statements in the criminal case. In one of these it says he was an assistant; in another it says that he participated in handing over Artak Nazaryan’s things, his mobile phone; and in another, it says that he participated in handing over the mobile phones of other soldiers. But as he said in the court, he didn’t participate in any aspect of the investigation, he doesn’t know what the investigator wrote about, and he doesn’t know the investigator who wrote up those reports,” said Martirosyan.
As described by the human rights lawyer, the other witness, Rafayel Evoyan, testified that he described something else, but investigator Levon Poghosyan told him, “Write that you’ve read it, sign it and go to the service.”
The witness said in court that which is written in his pre-trial statement is untrue and those are not his words.
According to Martirosyan, state prosecutor Harutyun Harutyunyan, in response, said the witness was under pre-trial detention for three months and is becoming criminal-like, explaining this is why he’s lying.
In court, the witness, Rafayel Evoyan, also said the victim had killed himself. When asked how he knows this, Evoyan said the investigator, Levon Poghosyan, told him, while showing him photos of the corpse and saying Artak Nazaryan committed suicide.
Taking all this as a basis, the victim’s party made a motion for the judge to withdraw on the grounds that he is not impartial. Judge Samvel Mardanyan will state his ruling on the motion at the next court date, set for Mar. 27 at 12 pm.