Pashinyan’s Lawyers File 78-Page Complaint to Court of Appeal

Former editor-in-chief of the local Armenian daily Haykakan Zhamanak (“Armenian Times”) Nikol Pashinyan’s defense attorneys filed a 78-page complaint to the Court of Appeal of the Republic of Armenia.

Lawyer Lusine Sahakyan begun her client’s appeal by presenting the events that took place on the morning of March 1, 2008, saying that on that day police officers had come down on peaceful protesters in Yerevan’s Freedom Square in an attempt “to force the peaceful protest to stop.”

Pashinyan’s lawyers also read the results of the testimony of some witnesses who had seen how police officers were assaulting citizens coming from Freedom Square. The witnesses also mentioned that, during that entire time, Nikol Pashinyan had been appealing to citizens to stay calm and restrain themselves.

In Sahakyan’s words, the fact that Pashinyan and a group of people had organized mass disorder and that a special group had been acting to incite the disorder was not true either as the testimony provided by the “so-called group” has proved that they were not even aware where the citizens had gathered on March 1 after being attacked by the police. Ironically, some from that “group” came to know each other only at the court house.

According to Sahakyan, Pashinyan could not have organized the disorder, especially since it can be seen in video footage how he calls on the police to prevent the looting of shops, explaining that it was not part of their struggle.