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Ter-Petrossyan: The Case Of Seven Has Had An Inglorious End

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  • Ter-Petrossyan: The Case Of Seven Has Had An Inglorious End

    TER-PETROSSYAN: THE CASE OF SEVEN HAS HAD AN INGLORIOUS END

    ArmInfo
    2009-05-01 17:14:00

    ArmInfo. During an opposition rally today the first president
    of Armenia, the leader of the Armenian National Congress Levon
    Ter-Petrosyan made a statement concerning the so-called Case of Seven.

    The press service of the Armenian National Congress quotes
    Ter-Petrosyan as saying: "Even though the Armenian National Congress
    has issued a special statement regarding this problem on 2 April
    of this year, I do not think it is unnecessary to explicate the
    importance of that significant event once again in front of this
    large audience. To understand the essence of the so-called "case of
    seven" (in reality in should be "case of eleven"), we should first
    try to understand why the case had been initiated. There can be no
    doubt that the goal was to prove to the world that the opposition
    was trying to take over with the use of violence, which then would
    justify the authorities' response, which included opening fire on
    peaceful protesters, murdering ten people, and the declaration of
    the state of emergency.

    Accordingly, the court had been instructed to wrap up the case quickly
    and to render the stipulated verdict, which would confirm the official
    version of the events of 1 March. However, because of the perseverance
    of the popular movement, the courageous stance of the political
    prisoners, the competent strategy of the defense lawyers, as well as
    the intervention of the international organizations, that goal was
    stillborn. To save face, the authorities were forced to make serious
    changes in the criminal code, then to reformulate the charges on the
    bases of those changes and to dissolve the case into several cases.

    With that, and particularly with the revoking of the charge under
    Article 300 of the Criminal Code, the authorities in effect confessed
    hat the "case of seven" was fabricated from the start and that there
    has been no usurpation or even an attempt at usurpation of power
    by the opposition. Separating the case of the murders, meanwhile,
    amounts to a confession that the opposition's actions had nothing
    to do with them. Thus the official version of the events of 1 March
    has finally gone up in smoke, and what we are left with is the blood
    hilling crime committed by the authorities themselves, every detail
    of which is going to be revealed sooner or later.

    A question then arises as to what motivated the inadequate, or
    actually barbaric, behavior of the authorities on 1 March. Perhaps
    the mass disturbances organized by the opposition, which is what the
    reformulated charge against the aforementioned seven individuals
    is? Not only the fact of charging seven individuals as separate
    organizers of the same mass disturbance is a legal ignorance or
    downright absurd, there can be no doubt that these separated cases
    are going to have the same fate as the "mother case," because
    no representative of the opposition has so far been charged with
    committing violent acts, burning cars or looting shops personally. Even
    if the court succeeds in issuing verdicts violating the law, these
    cases are going to go up in smoke in the European court.

    As for who organized the mass disturbances, the burning of cars, and
    the looting of shops, I have spoken about it in front of a smaller
    audience during the first convention of the Armenian National Congress
    on 21 December 2008, stating in particular the following: "Based on
    information from reliable sources, we have determined that the burning
    of cars, the looting of shops, and other provocations on 1 March have
    been carried out by certain gangs, which have had 950 members between
    them. These gangs were formed, equipped, and put under the command of
    a center that was coordinating their activities by five high-ranking
    officials and four oligarchs.... The central office of the Armenian
    National Congress has made all the evidence about that available to the
    Fact-finding Group, to the Commissioner on Human Rights of the Council
    of Europe Thomas Hammarberg, and several foreign ambassadors stationed
    in Armenia." The credibility of this information is confirmed by the
    fact that the Armenian authorities have categorically forbidden the
    Fact-finding Group to conduct an inspection at a Defense Ministry
    warehouse, which has provided the clothing to the aforementioned
    gangs. Respecting the confidentiality of the work of the Fact- finding
    Group, we will refrain from making the names of the leaders of those
    gangs public for now. These people are still holding high offices
    and influential economic positions. There should be no doubt that the
    day will come when we will make those names public, and everybody is
    going to see the sort of despicable criminals, who are holding the
    fate of Armenia and the Armenian nation in their hands."
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