‘Uninformed, Inaccurate Assessments’: Opposite Bloc Criticizes Mar. 1 Statement

There are uninformed and inaccurate legal assessments and evaluations in the statement on the events of Mar. 1, 2008, issued by Armenia’s Special Investigation Service (SIS), said Armenian National Congress (HAK) state legal committee representative Gagik Jhangiryan, speaking to the press in Yerevan today.

According to him, the document released by the SIS not only didn’t dispel HAK representatives’ doubts on the objectivity and comprehensiveness of the investigation, but also evoked more doubts.

“The main purpose of this document is to justify and confirm at all costs the uninformed and inaccurate legal assessments and evaluations made previously of law enforcement’s actions on the events of Mar. 1, as well as denying and objecting at all costs the facts and conclusions in the fact-finding team’s reports aimed at promoting the disclosure of a few of the murders,” he said.

Citing the first point of observation in the document prepared by HAK, Jhangiryan noted that four years later, the RA General Prosecutor’s Office and the SIS view the peaceful rallies in Liberty Square protesting the Feb. 19, 2008 presidential election as events that breached public order, even though no known opposition activist has been taken to court or judged according to the article in Armenia’s criminal code which corresponds to this legal violation.

“Till today, whatever excuse and explanation you can come up with for the illegal and barbaric actions of the police, internal forces, special-purpose detachments in Liberty Square on the morning of Mar. 1, they’ve said it, but they haven’t been able to come up with any legal justifications,” he said.

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