HAYRIKYAN ON SEDRAKYAN VERDICT: “. . . BACK TO IMPERIALIST RUSSIA”
NEWS | 24.09.13 | 17:15
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By SIRANUYSH GEVORGYAN
ArmeniaNow reporter
The aggrieved party and the defendant in the attempted assassination
case against former presidential candidate Paruyr Hayrikyan are both
unhappy with yesterday’s court verdict meant to settle a criminal
case arising from last winter’s presidential election campaign.
The final court hearing on Monday ended with a guilty verdict,
sentencing defendant Vardan Sedrakyan, also former presidential
candidate known as an epos expert, to 14 years of imprisonment for
attempted assassination against Hayrikyan. The court found the other
two defendants, Khachik Poghosyan and Samvel Harutyunyan, guilty of
organizing and implementing the assassination attempt and sentenced
to 14 and 12 years, respectively.
While Sedrakyan’s defense attorney claims the court has brought
in an unfair verdict and failed to prove his client’s guilt, that
Sedrakyan had nothing to do with the crime he is now convicted for,
adding that he would appeal the verdict and take it up to the European
Court of Human Rights, Hayrikyan states his “disappointment with how
the case proceeded”.
During his Tuesday meeting with the press Hayrikyan did not rule out
the chance of him, too, appealing the verdict, however he would not
be challenging the sentence, because he believes it is the minimum for
such a crime. He says the court did not carry out full examination of
the case and that it should summon “those people who came as witnesses
during the preliminary investigation and who had given $100,000 to the
mastermind as a gift”. Hayrikyan believes that only by questioning
those people it would be possible “to come close to the person who
gave the order”.
Former Soviet dissident Hayrikyan, who regards Russian “imperialist
powers” and KGB as the mastermind behind the crime against him,
went even further today stating that “the supporters of reinstating
Russian imperialism started Armenia’s ‘voluntary’ membership in the
Customs Union (CU) by the gunshots fired at him on January 31, and
ended by Serzh Sargsyan’s September 3 statement on joining the CU”.
“The European Union is offering, the Customs Union is forcing, the
EU is advancing, the CU is regressing back to the USSR the Armenian
people gave up in September of 1991 by 94 percent of votes. Russia –
the axis of the CU – being Armenia’s strategic partner is supplying
mass destruction weapon to Aliyev threatening to resume the war against
Armenia,” Hayrikyan said, expressing his position on Armenia’s joining
the CU.