Epress.am News from Armenia
The sixth police division and investigator Minasyan continue to put pressure on victim Babken Budaghyan in the bribery case, defendant Sahak Harutyunyan's attorney Inessa Petrosyan informed Epress.am. Budaghyan in court on July 7 declared that the Special Investigation Service (SIS) threatened him — if he doesn't change his testimony, they'll charge him with another case.
Recall, Armenian Ministry of Justice employees Sahak Harutyunyan and Aleksander Khachatryan are accused of extorting a bribe of 400,000 AMD (a little less than $1,000 USD) from the victim. The charge was compiled based on the victim's testimony, but he later said in court that he testified against Sahak Harutyunyan upon the request of investigators.
The July 7 trial began with the court reading Budaghyan's statement, in which he wrote that the testimony he made in court was incorrect and asked for the opportunity to testify again.
"It became clear that our suspicions — that Budaghyan did not appear in court on July 3 because the investigator was 'working on him' — were justified. By the way, also absent at the July 3 court hearing was the prosecutor. In any case, the victim declared in court that investigator Minasyan and sixth [police] division chief Yeghishe Petrosyan forced him to write that statement. He said that even when submitting the application to court Yeghishe Petrosyan accompanied the victim to Etchmiadzin. He forced the victim to leave his car at the SIS yard and go with him to Etchmiadzin," said Petrosyan.
In court, the victim, Budaghyan, claimed that Sahakyan didn't demand a bribe from him and the entire story about a bribe is a provocation by a certain Ghazar, who said, "You'll go and put the money on Khachatryan's desk." The victim even said he's not literate enough to be able to write such a statement.
According to the defense attorney, Inessa Petrosyan, at Monday's court session Budaghyan requested that sixth police division employees not accompany him to court. The attorney said that though this is a means of protection, their presence pressures the victim.
Earlier, defendant Aleksander Khachatryan's attorney Givi Hovhannisyan had said it is clearly visible in the video of the victim being questioned at the police station that the victim has a bruise under his eye and this proves that Budaghyan testified against the two defendants after being subjected to violence. According to the attorney, his client ex officio had no opportunity to make changes to the list of those granted amnesty, thus it would've been fraudulent of him to agree to take a bribe for something he couldn't do. Sahak Harutyunyan, according to the lawyer, had nothing to do with bribery and a criminal case was launched against him only based on the victim's ever-changing testimonies.
Photo: Sahak Harutyunyan's relatives protest outside the Armenian General Prosecutor's Office