Epress.am News from Armenia
Lena Sarukhanyan, mother of Torgom Sarukhanyan, 22, who died of gunshot wounds in a Khojaly, Nagorno-Karabakh military unit on Feb. 12, 2011, informed Epress.am that received a court summons at 5 pm on Mar. 7 informing her that the court date for her son’s case was appointed on the same day at 10 am in Stepanakert.
She said the summons was sent by Judge H. Davtyan and in it, it was noted that it was sent yesterday from Goris. Naturally, Sarukhanyan was unable to be present in court since she received the notice too late — and this is not the first time this has happened either.
The mother of the deceased soldier also mentioned that she has sent four motions to Judge Lernik Atanyan (who was assigned to the case), stating that she has health issues and cannot get to Stepanakert (in Nagorno-Karabakh). Furthermore, she said, until she and her representatives are not provided with copies of the case materials she doesn’t feel it is expedient to attend court sessions without becoming familiar with the materials first.
“I read my responsibilities as the victim’s legal successor and the 9th provision of this states that I can become familiar with the case materials. Lernik Atanyan ignored [me] and didn’t provide the copies. I don’t understand how I’m supposed to be present in court. The person to blame for all this is the investigator — if he had provided the copies on time, I wouldn’t find myself in this tug-of-war,” she said.
On the new judge assigned to the case, Lena Sarukhanyan said she likewise doesn’t have confidence in him because it seems to her the new judge is well acquainted with her motions, but the court persistently refuses to grant them.
Recall, Torgom was drafted into the army from Gyumri in 2009 and was to have completed his mandatory service by the fall of 2011. According to the official cause of death, Torgom was provoked into committing suicide. Lena Sarukhanyan, however, doesn’t consider this version plausible while asking for a fair trial in her son’s case.