On 1 March, the judicial investigation in the case of the former Commander of the Police Forces, former Deputy Chief of the Police, Lieutenant General Levon Yeranosyan continued at the “Avan” seat of the Yerevan Court of General Jurisdiction. Judge Harutyun Manukyan presided over the session.
According to the indictment, Levon Yeranosyan, using special measures, deliberately performed such actions that clearly went beyond the scope of his authority and caused significant damage to the rights and legal interests of citizens, as well as caused serious consequences through negligence.
Yeranosyan was charged with Points 2 and 3 of Part 1 of Article 309 of the Criminal Code of Armenia and the signature not to leave was chosen as a measure of restraint against him. The actions attributed to Yeranosyan took place during the mass protests of 16 April and 22 April, 2018. He does not accept the charge.
Iravaban.net has reported that Levon Yeranosyan refused to testify in court, and due to this the court began publicizing his pre-trial testimony. In terms of the content, he did not say anything important in them, and in some cases he refused to testify.
The court considered this stage of the proceedings completed. After that Tigran Safaryan, the defense attorney of Levon Yeranosyan, stated that he insists on the petition submitted earlier. That is, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, Hunan Poghosyan and Valeri Osipyan should be questioned in court.
“The court postponed the mentioned petitions on the grounds that the evidence presented to the court has not been examined yet. After examining the evidence, the grounds for granting the petitions are more than obvious,” the attorney noted.
According to Tigran Safaryan, in case of their questioning, such facts that are important for the correct solution of this case will be presented to the court. The judge wondered what the purpose of the petition was, because the actions of the citizens are clear from the testimonies and published videos.
“We have already interrogated many witnesses and victims, moreover, all the actions are visible in the videos, even those that were made by the use of drones, what additional information, which we cannot see in the videos can the mentioned persons provide,” Harutyun Manukyan said.
Safaryan answered: the purpose of summoning the mentioned 3 persons to the court is not to assess the actions of the citizens, but the questions regarding the planning of the actions of the police.
“One of the videos shows how Osipyan gives an order to apply special measures. This is about Hunan Poghosyan and Valeri Osipyan. As for Nikol Pashinyan, during the events of 16 April and 22 April, 2018, Nikol Pashinyan was in the “leading role”, and as a result of his certain actions, special measures were applied,” the defender noted.
Prosecutor Armen Shahbazyan said that the petition is subject to rejection because the examined evidence was sufficient.
“In addition, Mr. Osipyan was not superior to Levon Yeranosyan in office; nothing related to his actions is described in the accusation. As for Hunan Poghosyan, we do not have any data that Mr. Poghosyan ordered to apply special measures,” the prosecutor said.
The presiding judge rejected the petitions on the grounds that everything was visible in the videos. Tigran Safaryan asked to postpone the session and give them time to submit motions on obtaining new evidence.
The session was postponed; the next court session is on 7 March.
