Defense attorneys for the seven individuals charged with crimes surrounding the March 1st events held a press conference earlier today at the "Ourbat Club" where they commented on the trial proceedings up till now. Given that one of the charged, former ROA foreign minister Alexander Arzumanyan, was celebrating his 50th birthday behind bars, his lawyer, Libarit Simonyan, took the microphone and expressed his opinions on what has transpired in the court so far. Mr. Simonyan began by stating that Judge Martirosyan, on the first day of the trial, prohibited video-taping the court proceedings for more than 30 minutes but rescinded the order after attorneys lodged a protest. "At yesterday session however, reporters were barred from the courtroom to tape the proceedings. The own court's decision wasn't being carried out and I think this was the first attempt to hinder public coverage of the trial which is one of the attributes of a just trial," the attorney noted. Attorney Simonyan also commented on yesterday's flap regarding the proper seating in the courtroom of relatives and friends of the accused in which their designated spots were taken by "injured parties" of the events. "They told me that besides "injured parties" there were also employees of the criminal investigative services dressed in civilian clothes seated in the designated area. They were behaving quite badly and were hurling curses at our clients. In a word, they were trying to disrupt proceedings and create an atmosphere of unrest," declared Mr. Simonyan. He added that all this was a premediated plan designed to allow the judge to order that the trail would henceforth take place behind closed doors.