Levon Avagyan, former Nubarashen teacher, to be sentenced on May 29 According to the indictment levied against Levon Avagyan, a former teacher at the Nubarshen #11 School for Special Needs Children, during the period 1985-2008, he engaged in sexually illicit acts with adolescent and defenseless pupils at the school.However, during the current criminal case, only five girls have been registered as defendants. The Prosecuting Attorney has petitioned the court to sentence Avagyan to 1.5 years whilst the defense expects a sentence that does not require any prison time. The statement made by the Avagyan's defense attorney of May 19 infuriated many of the spectators in the courtroom since he quoted from the bible, saying 'whoever is without sin, let them cast the first stone against Avagyan'. In response, women in the court cried out,"What are you trying to say, that we are all pedophiles?" Sitting in the Erebuni and Nubarashen Administrative Court that day was Gayaneh, one of Levon Avagyan's former "victims". She was enraged when she heard the prosecutor ask for a mere 1.5 year sentence. "You weren't there. You didn't experience the beatings, what they call a genocide. I remember my childhood," yelled out Gayaneh in the packed courtroom. The girl graduated from the school in the late 1990's. In their statements, Tigran Hayrapetyan and Avag Lalayan, attorneys representing the girls officially recognized as "injured parties", noted that it had been proven that Levon Avagyan not only engaged in illicit encounters with the pupils but they he also beat and used physical violence and thus two more criminal charges had to be added to the indictment. Avag Lalayan presented a segment of the testimony of one of the former pupils to the court: "Avagyan incited us to fight. He would say that until we didn't draw blood, we wouldn't sit, and they if we didn't fight he would beat us..." The attorneys for the girls stated in court that the personal character reference given by the school's director, describing Avagyan as a teacher with positive qualities, couldn't be used to lighten his punishment since the director beat the pupils as much, if not more, than Avagyan himself. "...That monster Yengibaryan would line us up against te wall and hit us in the stomach with all the force he could muster. We would collapse from the blows...", testified former pupil Marta Jakeich to the investigators. Then there is this further evidence that the school staff knew about the teacher's illicit behavior. "I told Ashot Ghadyan that Avagyan was placing his hands on the girls. He replied that Avagyan was a 'grown man and that no such thing was possible'. Later he warned me that if I raised the issue again he would 'break my head'." This is what Mariam Gevorgyan wrote in her testimony. She fled the school out of fear and not to have "her head broken'. During the court session, the accused, Levon Avagyan, once again expressed remorse for his actions and requested that the court go easy on him. The attorneys for his "victims" are convinced that deep down Avagyan has experienced no pangs of remorse, since true remorse must be proven by one's deeds and not by mere statements. The attorneys reminded the court that as late as February, 2009, the teacher had filed a complaint with the police, alleging that his former pupils had slandered his good name and reputation. The attorneys noted that Avagyan at first denied the charges against him but that in 2010, when the second criminal case was launched, he confessed that he had engaged in lewd and illicit acts with adolescent pupils. The court will pass sentence on May 24 at 4pm. Both prior and after the court session, several dozen protestors gathered opposite the court building. They held up signs demanding a harsher sentence for the "pedophile teacher". Many even demanded that he receive a life sentence behind bars.