On February 17, Anoush Martirosyan, the infamous “Madame Pimp” of Dubai and her sister Sofya Martirosyan, were cross-examined in their ongoing trial at Yerevan’s criminal court. During the session Prosecutor Artur Davtyan had to caution their defense lawyers on a few occasions.

“You can object to my questions and advise the defendants to refuse to answer. But please do not prompt them with answers to specific questions,” noted Artur Davtyan. In addition to Mariam Martirosyan, also charged in the case is the other sister of Anoush, Sonya Gabrielyan. At various times they assisted Anoush in transporting women of different ages to the United Arab Emirates under false pretenses where they wound up being forced to work as prostitutes.

“Hetq” has already reported on the histories of two such victims of Anoush, Ani and Milena (See: Madame Anoush: Infamous Pimp in Court Once Again).  The third injured party in the court case, 24 year-old Gohar (whose name has been changed) is a dancer by profession. She wound up in Dubai under the sponsorship of Anoush as a $1,500 a month dancer.

In court Gohar recounted that, “I was nineteen at the time and I wanted to travel overseas to work. Marieta, one of my acquaintances suggested I go to Dubai to work as a dancer. She took my passport but the process dragged on for a few months. I then changed my mind and decided not to go. One day she showed up and said that the visas were ready and that if I didn’t go I’d have to pay her back for the visas, about $1,500-2,000. I had no other choice but to go.

Gohar left for Dubai with her girlfriend Arevik. It was Anoush’s sister Sofya Martirosyan, who arranged the tickets and visas. It was Sofya who escorted them to the plane for Moscow. Fifteen days later a man called Gagik sent them on their way to Dubai.
Gohar’s mother, recognized as a material witness, also noted these facts in her testimony. However, Sofya Martirosyan declared that her statements didn’t reflect reality since, at the time, her uncle had just passed away and she couldn’t have gone to the airport, given that she had been in mourning.

Sofya Martirosyan stated to the court that, “Maro (referring to Gohar’s acquaintance Marieta) took her passport and, I don’t know how, sent Gohar off to travel. I only gave Gohar the telephone number of Anoush so that she could call her and see if she could be of any help in reaching Dubai. I didn’t go to the airport nor did I assist Gohar in any way. I have never recruited any women.”

However, during the preliminary examination she declared that there were times when women came to her house at the request of Anoush and that she had bought tickets for them with money sent by Anoush and then put them on the plane to Dubai.

“The investigator (Hovhannes Gevorgyan) took advantage of my illness and I wrote whatever he dictated. He’d say, write all this down and things will turn out well for you and your sister. Otherwise, you won’t leave this place,” Sofya declared.

“In Dubai we were met by a woman called Syuzan, who took my passport and that of Arevik, and took us to her house where there were many girls. It already dawned on me that dancing was out of the question. That day Anoush showed up and I said that I had been sent to see her. She answered that everything was normal, that I should wait here and that she’d take care of things. I stayed with Syuzan while Arevik went with Anoush. But she was quickly deported,” Gohar continued to recount. She stated that it was her opinion that Anoush had sold her to Syuzan.

Some two months later, law enforcement arrested Syuzan on a theft charge. Also locked up with Syuzan were the girls living with her. Anoush Martirosyan was also arrested on suspicion of participating in the theft.

“But they saw that I had no knowledge. They let me and the other girls arrested along with Syuzan with visas go free, including Gohar. She asked what should we do now and I told her that I was renting an apartment and that she should stay with me. During the time Gohar stayed with me she didn’t work as a prostitute. She was seeing an Arab guy named Ahmed who gave her money and she paid me rent expenses. One time she fell in love with an Azerbaijani man and went to stay with him. But one month later she called me up begging that I go and escort her back to my place. I took her back and during the next two months she got her papers in order and returned to Armenia,” Anoush proclaimed in court and stressed that she never took Gohar’s passport and never demanded money from her other than for the rent.

However, according to Gohar’s statements, she actually gave all the money she made to Anoush and that rather than leaving Anoush she fled from her and went to the Azerbaijani man. “I and Vera had left our previous “boss” to go to Anoush and our passports wound up with her. Later we paid 5,000 dirhams apiece to Anoush to get them back. I stayed in Dubai for eight months. After getting my passport back I returned to Yerevan.”

Anoush Martirosyan also denied the charge that she had subjected Milena to sexual exploitation. In her words, Milena had also been one of her house guests and she had been startled when she heard that Milena had complained about her. “When I came to Armenia the examiner handed me a document containing the names of all the women transported to Dubai by Gayaneh Ghaltakhchyan, including Milena’s name. But I had no connection whatsoever with any of that.”

Anoush notes that amongst all those recognized as injured parties in the case only Ani had been transported to Dubai and that she only worked there for one year on a 50-50 basis. “That was in 2002, when I was working as a pimp. But in 2004 I was found guilty for that crime in which Ani was involved and I was punished. Her mother testified against me both in the court and in the prosecutor’s office. After being sentenced I haven’t engaged in that work. I had already started to rent out homes and re-rent them to others.”

However, during the preliminary examination Anoush Martirosyan stated that in 2007 she had “financed, sent an invitation and transported Haykanoush, Jemma and Hermineh to Dubai to work in the sex trade”.

When Prosecutor Artur Davtyan reminded her of this Anoush replied, “The first time they took testimony from me during the preliminary examination I had no legal representation. The examiner told me to write-write so that he could let me quickly go. In a state of shock I wrote down whatever he said.”

The Prosecutor announced the testimony that Anoush had given during the preliminary examination. It turns out that she at first refused to make any statements without the presence f her lawyer. Later she offered testimony only in the presence of Mkrtich Vasakyan, who was also defending her interests in court.

“Mr. Vasakyan suffers from diabetes and left the room on several occasions during the interrogation,” noted Madame Anoush in response and added, “perhaps I didn’t hear the question correctly. There are names related to the case that you have listed who are my friends. They called me up and asked that I get them a visa. What’s the big deal; it’s not even a question of $100.”

During the trial, when Ani and Milena, both injured parties, directed questions at Anoush, she answered by asking, “How much money have they given you to come here and put on this act?” In response, Ani shot back a question of her own to Anoush, “It’s you who has paid out money to the other victims not to complain and show up in court. No matter, be patient, your girls are on their way from Dubai.”

The trial will resume on February 24.