Ten individuals indicted for assaulting Custom’s Committee President The case of the break-in and burglary at the home of Armen Avetisyan, former president of the RoA Customs Committee continues at the Kentron and Nork-Marash District Court. An indictment has been handed down to ten individuals, of which two, Ara Karapetyan and Armen Nikoghosyan, have been named as the ringleaders. “The case has reached the courts and those indicted have started to renounce their former testimony. But I promise that I will intervene and ask that the court show leniency to those who sincerely repent,” said prosecuting attorney Hovsep Sargsyan in a conversation with Hetq. He went on to say that neither he nor the investigators with the National Security Service are psychological misfits who want to charge innocent men for such a serious crime based on nothing. Moreover, Mr. Sargsyan says that those indicted are “not players in either the political or economic fields.” Readers will be reminded that Ara Karapetyan, regarded as the mastermind behind the crime, is the owner of Shoe City, Ltd., one of the largest importers of shoes in Armenia. During a court session he stated that if one of his business operations was causing problems for anyone they could have resolved the issue in a more “gentlemanly” fashion, rather than fabricating such a criminal case against him. The other alleged ringleader, Armen Nikoghosyan, was the former Police Chief of the Nor Nork district of Yerevan. He had been found guilty of other charges related to the events of March 1, 2008. “On the night of March 1, Armen Nikoghosyan called a friend who was at Freedom Square and warned him that the police were on their way. Otherwise, he is neither a member of the opposition nor a political activist,” says Prosecutor H. Sargsyan. Regarding Ara Karapetyan, the prosecutor says it’s naive to believe that he is being hounded for economic considerations given that Karapetyan had “no problems with the authorities and that his business operations were within accepted parameters set down by the authorities.” “You constantly state that ‘I am physically ready, I have worked-out. What? Do you write everything they tell you?” asked Ara Karapetyan of Bagrat Soghomonyan, another of the indicted, during a cross-examination. “Hey buddy, no one should be bragging. Anyone else in this hall in my shoes would have written what they were told,” said Bagrat Soghomonyan in response, adding that, “In wasn’t a question of beating the guy. Ten guys could have beaten him. But when you lay your hands on someone’s family that’s a whole other matter. The family is sacred and no one has the right to threaten a man’s family.” Bagrat Soghomonyan not only made a confession during the pre-trial examination but also offered damaging testimony against the other indictment individuals, including Ara Karapetyan. However, in court, he said he didn’t even know Karapetyan and that he only knew three of the ten people charged – Arsen Soghomonyan, his father; his friend Hayk Melkonyan; and an intimate friend of the family, Armen Nikoghosyan. Bagrat Soghomonyan is a master of the eastern martial arts. Sat one time he taught karate and worked in the Organized Crime Division at the Police Department. He voluntarily left the police and moved to Spain in 2003. According to the indictment, Bagrat later received a call from his friend Hayk Melkonyan, who proposed that they start up a “profitable business” in Armenia; in other words robbery. In court, Bagrat declared that all this was a distortion of the facts. “Somewhere in the testimony it is written that they gave me $5,000 to come to Armenia, somewhere else, $5,500. The investigator told me what to write and I did. But he couldn’t even remember what he had told me the previous time. That’s why there are so many contradictions.” Bagrat says he returned to Armenia on his own initiative; for health reasons and to get married. He says that no one gave him money to return and that he has no connection to the events ascribed to him. They arrested him in February of last year, near the house of Armen Nikoghosyan. “Since March 1 was approaching and they had charged Armen with some political stuff, I figured they saw me with Armen and that all this is linked somehow. When I was arrested I categorically stated I had no involvement in politics,” says Bagrat, adding that he only learnt that he was being arrested for a gang assault when he was at the offices of the National Security Service. “In my first testimony, I had written that I had no connection with any of this. But Investigator Vahe Papoyan tore up my testimony and threw it in the trash. Why? What right did he have to do this?” exclaimed Bagrat Soghomonyan in court, noting that afterwards he simply made a compromise with the investigators in his testimony, knowing full well that “those fairy tales still had to be proven in court.” After Bagrat, his father and brother, Arsen and Artak Soghomonyan, were arrested on the same charges. Sometime later, the charges against his brother were conveniently concealed and he was released five months later under the general amnesty. “I really don’t wish to get into details about the beating and the electro-shock burning. You will find no such bestiality in any fiction book. But it’s hard not to do what they want when your father is in the next room. They told me ‘to write so that your father goes home.’ Or else they would tell me if I didn’t write what they said they would detain my brother. They also threatened that they would arrest on of my relatives,” relates Bagrat, adding that he prefers not to mention which relative was threatened with being arrested. Prosecutor Hovsep Sargsyan declared in court that, “OK, if the pre-trial investigator tore up the testimony, how come no one ever brought it up? The ten defendants have eight attorneys between them. One of them should have presented a motion to the court.” Prosecutor Sargsyan says that the defense team made only one motion during the pre-trial examination regarding the return of a Niva jeep seized as evidence. According to the indictment it was the jeep five of the defendants climbed atop to gain entry to the house of Armen Avetisyan on the night of October 26, 2008 “There is no tribunal in this country where you can submit a protest and that protest will lead somewhere. If our protest about the jeep they are holding has gotten nowhere, do you actually think a protest against an official will?” Bagrat Soghomonyan shot back in response to the statement made by the prosecutor. Pointing to his black car parked outside the courthouse, Prosecutor Hovsep Sargsyan told Hetq, “If I say it is Othello would you believe me? What I want to say is that everything black isn’t Othello and one shouldn’t believe everything they hear. They can say many things but the evidence presented says something else.” The last two trial sessions have been delayed due to the absence if this or that attorney. At the next session, the court plans to question Hayk Melkonyan, Bagrat’s friend. Hayk’s attorney, Anahit Avetisyan, told Hetq that her client’s testimony would turn the case upside-down. The trial will continue on August 16. Photo by G. Shamshyan