Legal successors (relatives) of the Avetisyan family and their representatives introduced themselves to the court. Russian citizen Valery Permyakov, a conscript who served at the Russian military base in Gyumri, is charged with murdering all seven members of the family on January 12. Among the killed were also a two-year-old girl and a six-month-old boy.
Artur Sakunts, a leading Armenian human rights activist who represents the legal successor of the victims at the trial, made a petition for all people in [Russian] military uniform to be removed from the chamber. The judge said that the Russian military were also ensuring the security of the person being tried [Valery Permyakov]. The judge announced a break in the proceedings.
Before the trial it was announced that there would be limited seating in the chamber. It was said that media and members of the public could also follow the trial on monitors from tents put up outside the garrison military court at the Russian military base in Gyumri.
Representatives of the legal successors of the victims had asked for information on Permyakov’s possible being a member of a Satanist sect in Russia to be provided to the Armenian side. They also consider making a petition for the trial to be transferred to the court of the general jurisdiction of Armenia’s Shirak province.