Tensions continued to run high on Thursday at the trial of 18 men who seized a police station in Yerevan last year, with several defense lawyers walking out of the courtroom to protest against the absence of their clients.
The presiding judge, Artur Gabrielian, twice interrupted the court session after one of the attorneys, Lusine Sahakian, persistently spoke without his permission. Gabrielian sanctioned Sahakian and said he will ask Armenia’s national bar association to take disciplinary action against her for what he called a contempt of court.
The judge also sanctioned another lawyer, Monica Markarian, after she left the courtroom without his permission. Sahakian and several other lawyers also waked out afterwards, saying that they will not attend court hearings on the high-profile case as long as their clients are barred from the trial.
Fifteen of the 18 defendants were removed from the courtroom indefinitely because of refusing to stand up and thus show respect for the judge at the start of previous hearings. The three others, who attended Thursday’s session, were allowed to remain seated because they are still recovering from gunshot wounds sustained during the gunmen’s July 2016 standoff with security forces. One of them, Tatul Tamrazian, also demanded that his comrades be brought back into the courtroom.
The 18 men standing trial are the key members of an armed opposition group that stormed the police base in Yerevan’s Erebuni district. The gunmen demanded that President Serzh Sarkisian free Zhirayr Sefilian, the jailed leader of their Founding Parliament movement, and step down. They laid down their arms following the two-week standoff which left three police officers dead.
Facebook Forum