A witness in the trial one of the Armenian opposition figures arrested last year on Wednesday claimed to have been tortured by the police into giving incriminating testimony against the defendant.
Parliament deputy Sasun Mikaelian is one of the seven well-known supporters of opposition leader Levon Ter-Petrosian who were recently cleared of controversial coup charges stemming from the March 2008 clashes in Yerevan. They are now standing separate trials for only organizing the “mass riots” that left 10 people dead and more than 200 others injured.
Like several other individuals, Yasha Melkonian, a resident of the central town of Hrazdan, said in a pre-trial testimony signed by him that Mikaelian ordered him to attack security forces with iron bars. He retracted the testimony in the court on Wednesday, saying that it was given under duress. “I was dying of pain,” he said.
Melkonian, who was given last year a suspended two-year prison sentence for allegedly resisting the police during the post-election protests, told the court in the town of Abovian that he was recently summoned to the Hrazdan police headquarters and told to again implicate Mikaelian during the trial. He said he was severely beaten after refusing to promise to do that.
Melkonian said he heard a similar warning at the Office of the Prosecutor-General in Yerevan a few days later. “I told them that I can’t make such a statement in court,” he said. “I would rather suffer than insist on such testimony.”
Two days later the police launched criminal proceedings against Melkonian’s son after claiming to have found cannabis in his apartment. “They tried to blackmail me into reaffirming my testimony,” the opposition supporter said during his cross-examination.
The police did not immediately react to the allegations. The main trial prosecutor, Koryun Piloyan, told the judge that the allegations should be investigated by the Special Investigative Service (SIS), a law-enforcement agency that has conducted the criminal investigation into Armenia’s post-election unrest.
Several other witnesses in the trial of both Mikaelian and other jailed oppositionists have also claimed to have been tortured by police and SIS investigators. Ter-Petrosian’s Armenian National Congress (HAK) accused the authorities on Tuesday of “terrorizing” these and other witnesses. It portrayed the alleged bullying as further proof that HAK loyalists are being kept in jail on politically motivated and baseless charges.
Like several other individuals, Yasha Melkonian, a resident of the central town of Hrazdan, said in a pre-trial testimony signed by him that Mikaelian ordered him to attack security forces with iron bars. He retracted the testimony in the court on Wednesday, saying that it was given under duress. “I was dying of pain,” he said.
Melkonian, who was given last year a suspended two-year prison sentence for allegedly resisting the police during the post-election protests, told the court in the town of Abovian that he was recently summoned to the Hrazdan police headquarters and told to again implicate Mikaelian during the trial. He said he was severely beaten after refusing to promise to do that.
Melkonian said he heard a similar warning at the Office of the Prosecutor-General in Yerevan a few days later. “I told them that I can’t make such a statement in court,” he said. “I would rather suffer than insist on such testimony.”
Two days later the police launched criminal proceedings against Melkonian’s son after claiming to have found cannabis in his apartment. “They tried to blackmail me into reaffirming my testimony,” the opposition supporter said during his cross-examination.
The police did not immediately react to the allegations. The main trial prosecutor, Koryun Piloyan, told the judge that the allegations should be investigated by the Special Investigative Service (SIS), a law-enforcement agency that has conducted the criminal investigation into Armenia’s post-election unrest.
Several other witnesses in the trial of both Mikaelian and other jailed oppositionists have also claimed to have been tortured by police and SIS investigators. Ter-Petrosian’s Armenian National Congress (HAK) accused the authorities on Tuesday of “terrorizing” these and other witnesses. It portrayed the alleged bullying as further proof that HAK loyalists are being kept in jail on politically motivated and baseless charges.