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  • Attempt To Defend Murderer

    ATTEMPT TO DEFEND MURDERER
    Suzan Simonyan

    Lragir.am
    http://www.lragir.am/engsrc/society23073.html
    24/08/2011

    The incident of last November in one of the southern military units of
    NKR is the past year's most bloody and fantastic thriller in the life
    of our army. The wire of headphones of one of the senior sergeants was
    ripped. He utters a word of abuse, and one of the conscripts, Manvel
    Hazroyan, 19, thinks the sergeant meant him. In 5 hours he kills 4 and
    wounds 3 from a machine gun. In the end, he shoots from the machine
    gun twice at himself. This is the official story. Later in hospital,
    at the intensive care unit, Manvel Hazroyan confesses that he was the
    killer. "One of the victims was outdoors. He killed him. Then he went
    downstairs. It was dark. He opened the squeaking door and opened fire.

    One person went unnoticed. He left the room barefooted. He set to run.

    Hazroyan chased him and shot him dead. Later the guy's brother asked
    him why he killed his brother. He said I didn't know it was your
    brother," tells Edmond Marukhyan, Hazroyan's attorney.

    However, Hollywood wouldn't pick up this story because it has a
    serious shortcoming. The motive of murder is not in place. The
    American audience would never believe that one would kill a squad
    for a word of insult, and do it after thinking for 5 hours. Those
    7 should have insulted him so deeply, at least raped him. However,
    Hazroyan would not tell anything.

    In hospital, Manvel was interviewed and confessed in the absence
    of his attorney. Earlier Vova Gasparyan, the deputy minister of
    defense, met with him. It is not known what they talked (this episode
    is missing in the records). It is not known what other officials met
    with him. His father, Armen Hazroyan, arrived at the hospital but was
    not allowed to talk to his son privately. At the intensive care unit,
    7-8 soldiers guarded Manvel, and even the doctors felt uneasy when
    they were asked about the health of the patient.

    The father's impression was that his son was intimidated, and he did
    not believe his confession was true, and on the same day he shared
    his doubts with reporters. Later the young man told his attorney he
    didn't realize what he was doing at the time of killing. "Sometimes he
    is calm, sometimes he breaks down. If he took a word of abuse uttered
    in the air for him, if he was mad with everyone, it means this person
    has an unhealthy perception. It means he is not sane. If he is not
    sane, why was he called up? If there is no such perception, it means
    something is wrong with the investigation," Marukhyan says. On August
    3, when Judge Hamlet Davtyan voiced his verdict of life sentence,
    Hazroyan again lost control. On hearing his sentence for life, the
    young man threw the plastic bottle with water at the judge and hit
    him. The officers of Shushi jail handcuffed him and beat him in the
    court room.

    Edmond Marukhyan tried to help his defendant but he was beaten too.

    When everyone calmed down, the attorney asked the officers why they
    beat him too, they said because he defends Hazroyan. These crimes
    were committed in front of the judge but charges were brought only
    against the person who threw the bottle.

    Hazroyan reported violence against him to the Prosecutor General's
    Office. The report was redirected to the Office of the Prosecutor
    General of Karabakh. There is no response. The Chamber of Advocates has
    hung a condemning decision on the wall. Attorney Melania Arustamyan
    says the Chamber of Advocates took every possible step to defend
    Marukhyan but neither the steps nor the decision is published,
    considering the Karabakh issue.

    The head of the security of Shushi remand prison who was among
    those who beat Hazroyan asked him in the presence of his attorney,
    "Do you complain that we beat you?" Hazroyan refused to complain.

    "How could he say yes, the head of security used violence? If he did,
    after the investigator left, they would beat him to death in Shushi
    jail," Edmond Marukhyan says. He appealed the decision of the Court
    of First Instance as he found a great number of violations during
    the preliminary investigation and trial, so the verdict cannot be fair.

    "Manvel Hazroyan was interrogated in the absence of his attorney.

    After getting his confession, they engaged an attorney who signed
    the records but he was not a member of the Chamber of Advocates of
    Armenia. In other words, according to the law of Armenia, it was not
    an advocate. The investigation was built on this evidence which they
    took with violation of the law. The real motive of the crime is not
    known. A sane person would not take up a machine gun and kill his
    friends for an indirect word of insult," says Edmond Marukhyan.

    He filed a petition to assign a forensic examination by a psychologist
    and a psychotherapist but his petition was dismissed.

    "Since there is no evidence, conclusion of forensic examination
    obtained in accordance with the law that he is insane, the punishment
    cannot be considered fair. You cannot sentence a person for life like
    this. We think it is unacceptable to use the forensic examinations
    and Hazroyan's confession as evidence," the attorney says.

    He was labeled "traitor" for a legislative discrimination between NKR
    and Armenia. Hazroyan has been transferred to Armenia. He is at the
    Nubarashen penitentiary. Every time Marukhyan meets his defendant,
    he asks: "Did you think, huh? Do you have anything to say?" But he
    keeps silent.

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