Epress.am News from Armenia
At today's trial in the case against him, Reserve Colonel, Karabakh War veteran Volodya Avetisyan arrived wearing a black shirt with white lettering that read "Regime, I am Armenian, kill me". His military friends and supporters in the courtroom greeted him with applause and shouts of "We are with you!"
Accused of taking bribes and in pre-trial detention since September 20, 2013, Avetisyan doesn't admit to the charges; moreover, he claims the charges against him are a result of political persecution, since he was one of the organizers of the regular protests by veterans.
Witnesses Angela Poghosyan, her husband Albert Matosyan, and their daughter Anahit Matosyan were questions at the Court of First Instance of Arabkir and Kanaker-Zeytun Administrative Districts of Yerevan today.
Albert Matosyan described how in June 2013, his son, who is a programmer by profession, was unexpectedly drafted into a military unit in Mataghis. Later, the family learned "from here and there" that it was a "very bad" military unit.
He said that his wife obliged him to take her to Mataghis, to visit their son. At the military unit, discovering that their son is serving in inhumane conditions, they returned home despondent and decided to somehow get their son transferred to another military unit.
His wife spoke about this to her classmate Tsovinar, who promised to help. A few days later, Tsovinar offered her brother Volodya Avetisyan's help, saying that he is a soldier and might be able to help in some way.
In his testimony, the witness said they wanted their son transferred somewhere else, and got Avetisyan's phone number from Tsovinar, and, as agreed, they met with him at Liberty Square in Yerevan.
During the conversation it became clear that Avetisyan could not help them. Matosyan said that from the start, they had no intention of giving money.
Some time later, according to Matosyan, their son called and said that he was quite randomly transferred to another military unit. Much later, three military police officers visited them and detained both him and his wife. At the military police division, the spouses were kept in separate rooms and released at around 1:30 am. Matosyan's wife told practically the same story.
The prosecutor requested to make public the testimonies the witnesses gave during the preliminary investigation, remarking that there are significant discrepancies. In particular, during the preliminary investigation, Angela Poghosyan said that Avetisyan asked for $500 from her husband in return for their son serving at the same military unit but under better conditions, whereas now she says her husband never told her anything like that.
In the interrogation report, it says that the couple was taken to the military police division at around 7:15 pm and were released at 9:50 pm, but today the witness said that they were kept at the police division until 1:30 am.
Asked by Avetisyan's attorney Ara Zakaryan whether the time noted in the report corresponds to the truth, the witness replied, "Probably not; it doesn't correspond to the truth."
The other witnesses, from whom, according to the indictment, Avetisyan demanded $2000, must be present at one of the subsequent hearings.
Before the start of today's trial, war veteran Stepan Stepanyan, in conversation with Epress.am, said Avetisyan's supporters are constantly being threatened, as a result of which one of their friends has been missing for a long time, and they don't know his whereabouts.