"I had a son who fell victim to one of the 'accidents' that happen in the army. Even if I'd had more, I would've sent them to serve in the army and protect our country, but not for these fascists. The court has turned into a circus," said Gohar Armenakyan, president of the organization Soldiers’ Defense Committee.

On December 24, 2003, Privates Hovsep Mkrtumyan and Roman Yeghiazaryan disappeared from military base N. The military tribunal filed criminal charges against them fifteen days later, but then on January 9, 2004, their bodies were recovered from a stream nearby, with marks suggesting violent death.

The four conscripts who were arrested and charged in their murder implicated Battalion Commander Ivan Grigoryan and Officers Karlen Mayilyan and Ruben Baghryan in their testimony.

Arman Grigoryan, a witness in the case, told of how he saw Battalion Commander Ivan Grigoryan take out two heavy plastic bags from his Niva. When the commander noticed Grigoryan, he called him over and told him to dump the bags into the creek.

Eventually, the course of the investigation took a dramatic turn. The four defendants were exonerated and new suspects were accused.

A new investigating group was created on the order of Armenia's Military Prosecutor G. Jhangiryan, and jurisdiction over the case was transferred from the Karabakh Prosecutor to the Military Prosecutor of Armenia.

The Syunik Court of First Instance sentenced defendants Razmik Sargsyan, Araik Zalyan, and Musa Serobyan to 15 years in prison on May 18, 2005. The verdict was based on a single confession attributed to Razmik Sargsyan, which, according to repeated statements by the defendant, had been obtained through beatings and violence. Razmik Sargsyan stated that he had been tortured by Aram Baghdasaryan, a military police officer. The three conscripts had been interrogated on numerous occasions between April 19 and April 24, 2004, always in handcuffs, and had been denied the right to legal defense.

Left with no other means to proclaim their innocence, the young men went on a hunger strike. Musa Serobyan went without food for 15 days and Araik Zalyan for 90. Razmik Sargsyan’s hunger strike has lasted from August 12, 2005 to this day. He is demanding that investigators arrange a retrial.

On November 30th, the courtroom at the Criminal and Military Supervisory Court was packed. Before reporters could enter the courtroom, their voice recorders and cameras were taken from them on the orders of the judge. However, the complaints that resulted forced Judge Mher Arghamalyan to order the equipment returned. Nevertheless, none of the television companies that had reporters in that courtroom broadcast any news about the trial that day.

The atmosphere was tense as the trial began. Defendants Araik Zalyan and Musa Serobyan carried Razmik Sargsyan into the courtroom and seated him with the help of the guards, after which he remained in the same position throughout the trial.
Julietta Sargsyan fainted when she saw her son. However, the trial started without delay. The presiding judge, Mher Arghamalyan, read out a statement by a forensic medical team, sent by the military prosecution to the Nubarashen detention unit on November 15th, which stated that defendant Razmik Sargsyan had refused a medical examination because he did not trust the doctors. The expert team examined Sargsyan's medical card in the detention unit and wrote their conclusion: "Sargsyan has had no complaints besides weakness. No abnormal findings had been noted during previous examinations, i.e. he does not suffer from any internal diseases, and his behavior is intentional, as the hunger strike shows. We find that there is no reason why he cannot participate in the trial." Relatives said that Sargsyan had gone to the army weighing 75 kilograms, but now weighed only 60 kilograms. Medical experts however, claimed that he had weighed 52 kg. before the trial. This seemed to suggest that Razmik had put on weight since going on hunger strike.

Defense attorneys insisted that the case should include the results of a medical examination of Razmik Sargsyan conducted by an independent physician. The doctor examined him with the permission of the Armenian Minister of Justice. But the judge said that "that piece of paper" held no substance for him. He did not even want to listen to the defense attorneys and kept on stubbornly asking the defendant questions, although he naturally did not receive a reply - Razmik was too weak to even lift his head. But the judge kept firing questions at him.

Constant comments from the audience in the courtroom forced the judge to resort to a trial behind closed doors. At the end of the session, the defense attorneys declared that they were filing an objection to the illegal activity of the court and were demanding that the judges be changed. The objection was overruled and the trial postponed by one day.

On December 1st, relatives of the defendants, representatives of various NGOs as well as university students demonstrated outside the Supervisory Court with placards reading "We don't want to be next", "Military prosecution - stop your illegal activity" and "We know who the criminals and their backers are."

The judge proposed watching a video clip which was part of the case. The defense attorneys tried to make an announcement regarding the video clip, but the judge did not let them. As a sign of protest, all three attorneys (Zaruhi Postanjyan, Stepan Voskanyan, and Ashot Atoyan) left the courtroom. However, that did not deter the judge from showing the video clip, which clearly showed that Razmik Sargsyan had been beaten to the extent that he had become unrecognizably disfigured. His face and arms were swollen and marks left by the beatings could be clearly seen on his head. In the clip, Razmik Sargsyan confessed his involvement, and narrated that the soldiers had received food from home on December 24th and had decided to eat it together in a ramshackle house not far from the military base. Hovsep Mkrtumyan and Roman Yeghiazaryan (the murdered soldiers) then showed up and demanded some of the food. A fight ensued and Sargsyan beat the boys up and left them unconscious in the house, returning a few hours later with Araik Zalyan and Musa Serobyan to throw their bodies into the creek.

While the video clip was being shown, Zalyan, who was seated next to Razmik Sargsyan in the courtroom, said on a number of occasions that Sargsyan’s condition had started to worsen, but the judge paid no attention until liquid discharge started pouring out of Sargsyan’s mouth and he lost consciousness. Police officers dragged him out of the courtroom. The defendant's mother, Julietta Sargsyan, also fainted and did not regain consciousness until paramedics arrived. None of the defense attorneys were allowed to be present while Sargsyan underwent a medical examination. The examining physician finally announced that the defendant was very weak and could not participate in the trial, and that he required immediate medical supervision.

After the trial was adjourned, the father of victim Hovsep Mkrtumyan, seemed confused and said that the evidence was flawed: "I'm not sure if Razmik is lying, or if they've misinterpreted him, but something is not right. Razmik said that a tall man, Hovsep, approached him and that he was taller than Roman, but my son was quite short. There are other things as well which raise doubts, but I won't mention them right now."

The father of the other victim, Roman Yeghiazaryan, announced at the very beginning of the trial that his son had not been murdered by the defendants. Yeghizaryan's side was represented in court by his paternal uncle, who is convinced of the defendants' guilt and supports the prosecution.

The trial has been postponed indefinitely.

Armenian ombudsman Larisa Alaverdyan visited Razmik Sargsyan at the Nubarashen military detention unit on December 7th. She proposed that Sarsgyan "end his hunger strike, recover and choose to actively defend himself in court." The ombudsman also met with doctors and the head of the detention unit, A. Sargsyan, and "proposed that Razmik Sargsyan not be brought to court while still on hunger strike, and meanwhile be transferred to a military detention hospital."