The attorney Stepan Voskanyan proclaims that his defender Feliks Gevorgyan accused of theft did not actually make any theft and the confession testimony was extorted through torture.

Since November, 2011 Feliks Gevorgyan has been accused of three different thefts during different periods of 2011 (According to Articles 177.1 and 177.2.3 of RA Criminal Code).

The criminal trial against Feliks Gevorgian is being held in in the court of general jurisdiction of Ajapnyak and Davitashen districts. It was found out during the investigation that three thefts were done in different periods, the accused stole 50m length 10 copper cables, electric motor and in another case copper cables worth 13 thousand AMD.

Voskanyan informed that Gevorgyan gave a confession testimony extorted through torture in Mashtots Department of RA police and filed a complaint for torturing him to RA Procecutor's Office.

"Early in the morning on September 28, 2011 when Gevorgyan was at his house in village Zovuni the head of criminal investigation Arthur Gevorgyan and his deputy Arkadik Sahakyan and 5-6 other employees came and brought Feliks Gevorgyan to Mashtots Department of police without any document. Here he was tortured as he was bitten and then they burnt his foot with hot iron, his foot bellied and got black as result of battery and one of his foot-nails was damaged and removed. These were done to make him take the blame for thefts" says the attorney.

According to the attorney they tried to persuade Feliks Gevorgyan to take the blame for one of the murders of March 1, 2008 but he refused. Feliks Gevorgyan and his father are the active members of Armenian National Congress, and Gevorgyan was once sentenced for the March 1 case for obtaining and keeping illegal weapon and released by amnesty.

The attorney is convinced that they are trying to subject his defender to political pressure and there were a lot of illegitimacies during the investigation.

Attesting witness Manuk Gyulshadyan doesn't speak Armenian about which he made a testimony in the court, as well as he doesn't know any toponym in Yerevan but it is clearly set forth in the testimony where they went and by which bus. Besides the attesting witness Manuk Gyulshadyan is on photos attached to experimentation together with Gevorgyan in bracelets. This circumstance is also strange for attorney Voskanyan as Gyulshadyan is only a witness to a search and not a policeman.

"And the other witness to a search has been an attesting witness for many times and he doesn't conceal it" says Voskanyan.

Manuk Gyulshadyan gave a testimony in the court that he had seen Feliks Gevorgyan for the first time in Mashtots  Department, he climbed the stairs hobbling and was in oppressed state. Gevorgyan was hobbling as according to the attorney his foot was damaged because of torture. Gevorgyan informed the Prosecutor's Office about the torture as well as Human rights defender but as Voskanyan said the medical examination was deliberately delayed to hide the torture.

"Even that day when the examiner came the bodily injuries were obvious -the swollen foot, burn scar, the foot nail was missing. But why they concluded that it was not clear whether there was an injury or not, and when there was an injury, and they brought similar reasons which were incomprehensible for me" says Voskanyan.

Mr. Voskanyan also notes certain contradictions in connection with certain thefts. He claims, that Gevorgyan couldn't climb the high walls of the building, pass through the grilles and go back again with the heavy stealing. He couldn't steal the big engine of 60-70 cm as well as the cables weighing 500-600 kg.

Besides, those people from whom these things were stolen cannot mention the precise date of theft, and when the attorney asked if that was possible that those things had been stolen in 2009, they did not exclude it.

The next court session will take place on February 14 at 12:00 pm.

In photograph attorney Stepan Voskanyan

Karine Ionesyan

Source www.hra.am