Armenian lawyers demand to ensure their safety at trials in Nagorno-Karabakh

Edmond Marukyan and Karen Tumanyan, members of the "Chamber of Lawyers of Armenia" appealed to Agvan Ovsepyan, General Prosecutor of Armenia, demanding to initiate a criminal case on the beating of their client Azroyan, a 20-year-old soldier, in the Stepanakert Court on August 3. The lawyers demanded to guarantee their safety in trials in the city of Stepanakert.

Starting June 16, the trial on the murder of four soldiers was held in Nagorno-Karabakh. A charge was filed against Manvel Azroyan, who confessed to killing his colleagues and insisted that "he did not know himself how it had happened". On August 3, Manvel Azroyan was found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment.

After the announcement of the verdict, Azroyan threw a plastic bottle of beverage "Djermuk", standing on the table in front of him, in the direction of the judge. Immediately after that, ward guards of the detention facility came to Azroyan and began beating him in the courtroom, then he was handcuffed. Lawyer Marukyan, who tried to interrupt, the policemen, trying to force him out of the courtroom, pushed to the end of the room.

In their letter, the lawyers stress that the Stepanakert Court fails to ensure security for the defendants and the defence's side during the court hearings.

"We will not be able to act as representatives of the victim's legal successor in the trial on the criminal case on murder of Gevork Kotsinyan, a regular soldier, committed in winter of 2011 in a military unit of Nagorno-Karabakh, which was appointed by Judge Atanyan of the court of general jurisdiction of the Syunik Region of Armenia in the city of Stepanakert, since the trials taking place there fail to ensure security for the litigation sides, in particular, the lawyers, who came from Armenia," the lawyers have emphasized in their letter.

The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent managed to find out that the General Prosecutor's Office took into consideration the lawyers' complaint.