At session of Armenian Court of Appeal, prosecutor suggests softer sentence to young oppositionist

Today, the Armenian Court of Appeal continued consideration of the appeal against to the decision of the court that sentenced four young opposition activists to imprisonment for hooliganism. Prosecutor Akop Martirosyan delivered his speech. The Prosecutor offered to mitigate the sentence for one of the defendants David Kiramidjyan and to replace imprisonment by a conditional sentence.

Let us remind you that at the first court session of the Court of Appeal, held on September 29, on lawyer Stepan Voskanyan presented justification of the claim. In particular, according to the defence, the charges were based entirely on the testimonies of the policemen, who were involved in the same case as the victims.

During the today's court hearing, Akop Martirosyan expressed his disagreement with the position of the plaintiff, according to which, the charges against the young opposition activists were based on the testimonies of law enforcement officers. According to the Prosecutor, the materials of the criminal case "assign an essential role to testimonies of civilians, who witnessed the incident, which occurred between young opposition activists and the policemen."

The Prosecutor has also refuted the defence's opinion that the actions of the activists against the policemen should be treated as self-defence. According to him, this is not possible, since the policemen acted within their power. The Prosecutor has reminded the audience that the Special Investigatory Service had examined the actions of the law enforcement officers and characterized them as comparable.

"During the transportation of young people to the police station, no violence was used against them," Akop Martirosyan has emphasized.

The Prosecutor has stated that the court of general jurisdiction had correctly clarified the actions of the defendants. "For his actions, Tigran Arakelyan was sentenced to 6 years of imprisonment, which is the minimum term of sentence," the Prosecutor has noted.

However, the Prosecutor claimed the need to sentence the defendant David Kiramidjyan to 2 years of conditional sentence.

During the court session, Judge Armen Danielyan, who chaired the trial, limited recording time for journalists to ten minutes. Vage Grigoryan, the lawyer of the defendant Tigran Arakelyan, asked the Judge to clarify the reason of limitation.

However, the Judge refused to explain the reasons for the ban and stated that the lawyer had no right to ask the Judge.

The next court session is scheduled for November 2.