Advocates demand to suspend trial of 18 "Sasna Tsrer" members

On August 31, the Yerevan court continued the hearings on the second case against members of the unit "Sasna Tsrer" (Daredevils of Sassoun). This was reported by the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent who attended the trial.

Judge Artush Gabrielyan has pronounced the decision to involve public defender Liana Grigoryan as an advocate for Sergey Kyuregyan and Toros Torosyan, despite the refusal of the defendants and the public defender himself.

"The court is not entitled to make such a decision and ignore the defendant's opinion," Liana Grigoryan told the court.

The public defender has submitted to the court a motion with a request to suspend the judicial proceedings and appeal to the Constitutional Court to resolve the crisis concerning involving public defenders in the trial.

The defendants' advocates have joined the request expressed by the public defender.

However, Judge Artush Gabrielyan has pronounced the decision to postpone the consideration of the motion, since he treated it as "presented not in due time." The Judge's decision provoked the indignation of the advocates.

The Judge has brought the trial to a deadlock, when he simultaneously deprived the defendants of their right to defence and tried to forcefully involve a public defender against their will. This was told to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent after the court hearing by advocate Inessa Petrosyan.

"With the help of the Ombudsman's Office, the defence for the 'Sasna Tsrer' members is going to appeal to the Constitutional Court to challenge the legality of the court's decisions," Inessa Petrosyan said.

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