Second witness has renounced his testimony in the non-combat death of M. Manucharyan
A second witness has renounced his testimony given during the preliminary investigation of the tragic death of Manuchar Manucharyan. After stating this, the witness left the court room as a sign of protest.
We have already noted in one of the previous articles (See: Key witness testifies that his testimony was coerced in the wrongful death of Manuchar Manucharyan) that during this same trial where the court is investigating the non-combat death of M. Manucharyan a fellow serviceman Arthur Abrahamyan insisted that his testimony was coerced.
The witness, Mr. Arman Sahakyan had mentioned in his previous testimonies that he was not in the military unit during the days before the incident, however he said that his co-serviceman Libik Mekrtchyan informed him that allegedly defendant Babken Gaboyan bullied, cursed and humiliated deceased soldier Manucharyan a few days before the incident.
The witness also added that he is not an eye-witness of the events and that he only testified on second hand knowledge of what Mr. Libik Mekrtchyan’s told him. It is noteworthy that his testimonies are a word-by-word repetition of Libik Mekrthcyan’s testimonies, even in terms of references and quotes.
The concern that the witness was put under pressure was confirmed at Court when he said that “all the testimony I have given during the preliminary investigation are false and are what the investigators dictated to me to write.” According to the witness, he was questioned in the military unit, the Military Police and the RA MoD Criminal Investigation Service office respectively. Moreover, he was questioned by 5-6 persons in the Military Police. The witness insisted that there was no pressure or threatening against him. However, he mentioned that while testifying in the military unit four hours after the incident he was very depressed emotionally because he had just returned from a leave he took because his grandfather and grandmother died. Because he was depressed and weak-willed he was unable to oppose the investigator’s request and wrote whatever the he told him to write.
During the interrogation of Mr. Sahakayan, the representative of the victim’s family R.Martirosyan drew attention to the fact that the witness was very anxious and could not give complete answers to the questions.
See more articles on this topic:
- Key witness testifies that his testimony was coerced in the wrongful death of Manuchar Manucharyan. 16 June, 2015;
- “Serious questions arise during trial on the unexplained death of Manuchar Manucharyan“. Posted 27 April, 2015;
- An Appeal has been filed against the inaction of the Yerevan Garrison Military Prosecutor’s Office to reopen the death of conscript soldier Manuchar Manucharyan. Posted 02 April, 2015
Posted 16 June, 2015
