YEREVAN (Noyan Tapan)–Defendants in the "Others minus Vano Siradeghian" case Vahan Harutiunian–Sahak Balian–Norair Tadevossian–Artur Khachatrian and Movses Nersissian intend to appeal the verdict of the lower court in the Court of Appeals demanding that they be found not guilty and be acquitted by court–their lawyers who find the court’s decision groundless and unmotivated said at a Thursday news conference.
The lawyers said that their defendants were in the services–they executed orders only and those giving orders are responsible for their execution.
Ruben Balabanyan–lawyer of former deputy minister of interior–former head of the Internal Troops Department–Vahan Harutiunian and ITD former agent Sahak Balian (who committed murders of Artur Hovhannissian and Karen Rafaelian)–explained that according to the Armenian Criminal Code the crime is considered premeditated if the murderer was aware of the goal of the crime.
According to defendant Norair Tadevossian’s lawyer Patvakan Khudoyan–even the then interior minister Vano Siradeghian did not know that the victims had to be killed: the order was issued by "superiors." Khudoyan pointed out that the crime was incompletely detected and the motives of the crime were not found.