Sochi court dismisses all petitions of builder Demerchyan's advocates

During the today's session in Sochi on the case of the builder Mardiros Demerchyan, accused of defaming the police, the court has rejected all the petitions lodged by his advocates.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on June 12, 2013, a builder of Olympic facilities Mardiros Demerchyan was detained by policemen; and on the following day he was hospitalized right from the police station of the Sochi settlement of Blinovo. Demerchyan said that policemen beat him and his colleague up and tortured him. Then, the builder was charged with a false accusation.

On July 9, the Adler District Court of Sochi appointed a handwriting examination after a witness refused from her signature in the protocol.

At today's session, the court announced the conclusion of Eugenia Koshkareva, the Acting Head of the Sochi Branch of the Krasnodar Forensic Laboratory, which states that defining the authenticity of the signature proved impossible, because of the "little amount of graphic material for examination."

As a result, the court today decided to postpone the trial till September 24.

In the opinion of Lyudmila Demerchyan, Mardiros' wife, the expert made her conclusion in the interests of the investigation. "After all, if it is proved that the investigator in the criminal case had forged doctors' signatures in order to illegally attract my husband to criminal responsibility, then, the investigator himself should be placed into the prisoner's dock," she told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.