YEREVAN (Noyan Tapan)–At the court hearing of the Armen Ter-Sahakian plus others case January 19–the defendants expressed their dissatisfaction with the fact that Deputy Prosecutor General Aghvan Hovsepian is public prosecutor in the Vano Siradeghian plus others case. According to the defendants–he must not represent the prosecution–as in 1994 he was head of the investigatory group that conducted investigation into the attempted murder of Vladimir Grigorian–the then head of the Investigation Department–Prosecutor’s Office of Armenia. In particular–the defendants were dissatisfied with the fact that the former commander of the Internal Troops–now a defendant in the Vano Siradeghian plus others case–Vahan Haroutiunian–"looking in Aghvan Hovsepian’s direction–is bringing every kind of lie upon us." The defendants called a lie Haroutiunian’s hint that in early 1998 Ter-Sahakian gang members were plotting an attempted murder of the then minister of defense Vazgen Sargsyan.
Ter-Sahakian’s lawyer–Safar Khachatrian expressed dissatisfaction with the courtroom being not heated and demanded that normal conditions be created or the hearing be adjourned until the spring.
The court continued publicizing the evidence of the witnesses in the case given during the preliminary investigation. At its sitting on January 20–the court is likely to finish publicizing the evidence and start questioning the defendants in the cases separated from the main case.