State prosecutors in Armenia launched on Friday criminal proceedings against unnamed individuals who they said are forcing witnesses to retract their incriminating testimonies against opposition figures tried for last year’s post-election unrest in Yerevan.
The move came after a host of witnesses stated during the ongoing trials that law-enforcement authorities bullied and tortured them into backing the highly controversial accusations leveled against the jailed oppositionists.
One of those witnesses disappeared from the courtroom moments before he was due to testify in the trial of Miasnik Malkhasian earlier this week. He claimed to have been forcibly taken to the Armenian police headquarters and warned by a high-ranking police official to blame the defendant for the March 1, 2008 deadly clashes in Yerevan. Such claims have dealt a further blow to the credibility of the cases against Malkhasian and five other oppositionists accused of organizing the “mass disturbances.”
In a written statement, the Office of the Prosecutor-General said about a dozen witnesses have asked law-enforcement bodies and courts for protection, saying that “some individuals” are pressuring them to renounce the pre-trial statements signed by them. “The received complaints show that some individuals, who have familiarized themselves with pre-trial testimonies given by witnesses, are trying to obstruct execution of justice and compelling witnesses to give false testimonies,” the statement said.
Sona Truzian, the spokeswoman for the Office of the Prosecutor-General, refused to name any of those individuals, citing security reasons. “The criminal case was opened to clarify those circumstances,” she told RFE/RL.
The defendants’ lawyers dismissed that explanation and suggested that the prosecutors are simply trying to prevent more embarrassing retractions. “Who is supposed to protect them? The police. But it’s the police that have been terrorizing those people,” one of the lawyers, Hovik Arsenian, said.
Vartan Harutiunian, a well-known human rights campaigner supporting the Armenian opposition, argued that the defendants’ relatives and supporters lack the muscle to pressurize or threaten anyone with violence. “If they were so powerful they would exert pressure on prosecutors and free the accused,” he said.
Armenia’s state human rights ombudsman, Armen Harutiunian, for his part, said his office has received no complaints from witnesses allegedly threatened by the opposition.
One of those witnesses disappeared from the courtroom moments before he was due to testify in the trial of Miasnik Malkhasian earlier this week. He claimed to have been forcibly taken to the Armenian police headquarters and warned by a high-ranking police official to blame the defendant for the March 1, 2008 deadly clashes in Yerevan. Such claims have dealt a further blow to the credibility of the cases against Malkhasian and five other oppositionists accused of organizing the “mass disturbances.”
In a written statement, the Office of the Prosecutor-General said about a dozen witnesses have asked law-enforcement bodies and courts for protection, saying that “some individuals” are pressuring them to renounce the pre-trial statements signed by them. “The received complaints show that some individuals, who have familiarized themselves with pre-trial testimonies given by witnesses, are trying to obstruct execution of justice and compelling witnesses to give false testimonies,” the statement said.
Sona Truzian, the spokeswoman for the Office of the Prosecutor-General, refused to name any of those individuals, citing security reasons. “The criminal case was opened to clarify those circumstances,” she told RFE/RL.
The defendants’ lawyers dismissed that explanation and suggested that the prosecutors are simply trying to prevent more embarrassing retractions. “Who is supposed to protect them? The police. But it’s the police that have been terrorizing those people,” one of the lawyers, Hovik Arsenian, said.
Vartan Harutiunian, a well-known human rights campaigner supporting the Armenian opposition, argued that the defendants’ relatives and supporters lack the muscle to pressurize or threaten anyone with violence. “If they were so powerful they would exert pressure on prosecutors and free the accused,” he said.
Armenia’s state human rights ombudsman, Armen Harutiunian, for his part, said his office has received no complaints from witnesses allegedly threatened by the opposition.