The Judges are Fulfilling an Order, says Expert About Dead Soldier’s Case

On November 5, 2012, a 19-year-old military conscript, Sargis Sahakyan, was found dead at a military base at the village of Tsiranadzor in Syunik marz (province). The case related to his death, as well as the preliminary investigation, have gone through a shameful and criminal process, says Peaceful Dialogue NGO military expert Ruben Martirosyan, who is also the representative of the vitctim's successor, to Epress.am. The case is currently at the Court of Appeals, while the plaintiff's side claims that Sargis Sahakyan did not commit suicide, whereas the verdict of the Court of First Instance sentenced young conscripts Artur Misakyan (4 years) and Ardashes Khachatryan (4.5 years) for inciting Sahakyan’s suicide.

Ruben Martirosyan claims that the two sentenced youth have no connection with either the death or suicide. The military expert reminded that during the trial Misakyan had noted that they had forced him to write a testimony at the military police. Similar statements have occurred during the case with other witnesses, who were serving with Sargis Hakobyan. Based on those statements, Martirosyan applied to the Special Investigation Service (SIS) demanding that they investigate the “proof behind the criminal intent,” however the crime’s report was left without an investigation.

The expert also does not trust the Court of Appeals' judges. On November 7, during the trial, Martirosyan submitted a motion to recuse the judicial staff; Karine Ghazaryan, Henrik Ter-Aramyan, and Grisha Melik-Sargsyan. Martirosyan justified the challenge, stating that the same three judges have released illegal verdicts for former military conscripts, in particular, the cases of Torgom Sarukhanyan, Artak Nazaryan, and Albert Adibekyan.

“My motion was also based on the fact that the three judges had decided to examine the case by the order of cassation, which lets one think again if  the judges are actually fulfilling an order and trying in all ways to bypass dealing with the preliminary investigator’s illegal actions and the Court of First Instance’s Judge Napoleon Ohanyan’s illegal verdict,” said Martirosyan.

While the court went to the consultation room to discuss the motion, one of the witnesses, lieutenant Gor Sargsyan, stated that he wished to give testimony to the court and present a new evidence.

The military expert noted that the incident frightened the three judges and after returning from the consultation room, the presiding Judge stated that they rejected Martirosyan’s motion, because the latter is spreading false news. After the rejection, the presiding Judge stated that there was a misunderstanding, and that the judges did not have a right to reopen the trial because the law has been violated by one of the defendants from a case branching from the present one, who has not presented himself to the court.

With that justification, the court interrupted the trial, stating that the next court session would take place on November 28 at 12:30 pm. According to Martirosyan, it remained unclear to whether the court considered that session illegal or not. Martirosyan stressed that the plaintiffs are cooperating with Misakyan and Khachatryan’s lawyer, “Helsinki Association” human rights defenders organization’s lawyer Ani Torosyan, and both demanding a just verdict.