Witness Not Invited to Court in order to Protect Government Officials, Says Expert

On November 5, 2012, a 19-year-old military conscript, Sargis Sahakyan, was found dead at a military base in the village of Tsiranadzor in Syunik marz (province). A witness in the case related to Sahakyan’s death, Gor Margaryan, did not receive a summons from the Court of Appeals to present himself in court and give testimony. Epress.am was told about the latter by Peaceful Dialogue NGO military expert Ruben Martirosyan (pictured), who is also the representative of the victim's legal successor.

According to the expert, the court claims that the notification was sent but Margaryan for some reason has not received it. Martirosyan is confident that the court does not wish to have witnesses, especially Gor Margaryan, to be interrogated because then it would be forced to send the court materials to the Special Investigation Service (SIS), which may result in a threat of criminal responsibilities for about 30 officials.

“Due to the witness not coming to court, the November 28 hearing at the Court of Appeals did not take place,  we also, understanding that Gor was not coming, didn’t attend. The next hearing will take place on December 18,” said Ruben Martirosyan.

He recalled that Sargis Sahakyan’s death was officially considered a suicide and that in order to blame two soldiers for the suicide, they forced Margaryan to give a false testimony against them. Margaryan is now stating that he was pressured to write a testimony at the Military Police. Pressure against witness Gor Margaryan continued even during the Court of First Instance hearings, where the prosecutor publicly defamed him. The witness came to the human rights defender Ruben Martirosyan to defend himself.

Recall, that the Court of First Instance’s verdict sentenced the young servicemen Artur Misakyan to 4 years and Artashes Khachatryan to 4.5 years for leading Sahakyan to suicide.