Judge calls Garo Yeghnukian 'political prisoner'
Hardly had the hearing in the case of the 14 members of the Sasna Dzrer group resumed in a court in Yerevan when lawyer Ara Zakaryan motioned the postpone the sitting reasoning that his colleagues could not attend the session because of the ordered search at the entrance. “I urge you to eliminate formal obstacles and enable those attorneys to enter the building and defend their clients. You close your eyes to the fact that the bailiffs do not allow us to enter the courtroom. Would you continue the hearing if the prosecutors were not here? This is a biased attitude,” Mr. Zakaryan said addressing the judge. The other lawyers joined the motion. “I also urge you to stop persecutions against attorneys. You have applied at least ten sanctions against each of us. Now you have decided to appeal to the Chamber of Advocates. If things continue this way, we shall soon be deprived of the right to work as advocates,” said Tigran Hayrapetyan. Judge Artush Gabrielyan then read the petition filed by Garo Yeghnukian, a member of the Founding Parliament movement charged with abetting members of the Sasna Dzrer, you wanted to have a second defender besides Tigran Hayrapetyan. In his speech, the judge called Yeghnukian ‘a political prisoner’ by accident. The hearing was again adjourned as the second defender, Nina Karapetyants, was not in the chamber.
