Advocates demand to cancel verdict to participants of "Million Mask March"

The sentence to the protesters, who took part in the "Million Mask March", should be abolished, because their guilt was not proved, the convicts' advocates declared to the Court of Appeal (CoA). The convicts have also demanded acquittal and stressed the political character of their case.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on October 17, 14 participants of the march were convicted of hooliganism and sentenced to various terms. In particular, the event organizer Shant Arutyunyan was awarded with six years in prison, and his 15-year-old son – to four years of conditional imprisonment.

The video materials, used to prove the guilt of Alek Pogosyan, who was sentenced to four years in prison, are contradictory to the to the charges, his advocate Eduard Agadjanyan stated at the session on January 16. According to the advocate, Pogosyan did not hit anyone at the action, including with a stick, which was regarded by investigators as a weapon.

Alek Pogosyan said, in his turn, that provocateurs were present at the action on November 5, 2013, who escalated the situation in order to "frame" the activists.

Karen Kocharyan, the defender of Vage Mkrtchyan, Albert Margaryan and Liparit Petrosyan, said that the prosecution has no evidence against his clients.

The next session of the CoA is scheduled for January 23.

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