YEREVAN. – The investigators are resorting to tricks so that the injured party police officers do not testify in court. Hayk Alumyan, a lawyer of Armenia’s second President Robert Kocharyan, stated about this in an interview on Monday.

"There are many violations in the case [on the events that occurred in the capital Yerevan on March 1, 2008]. It consists of many myths. One of them is that the rallies were peaceful, but they were brutally suppressed. Let me remind that 32 citizens are accused along the lines of this case; these people were without means of protection, whereas the 187 police officers, they were with means of protection. And we are told that the rallies were peaceful, whereas the police used disproportionate force.

However, some of the 187 police officers have not been included in the list in our case [against Kocharyan and several other former senior officials]; this has no explanation. And those who were included, nonetheless, do not come to court. I definitely know of a few cases, and I assume it was like that in the case of others, too. The investigator says that they are the injured party of Kocharyan's actions. The injured party says that he is not the injured party of the actions by the authorities, but by the demonstrators. The investigator says, ‘Well, then don't come to court.’ Those who think that they have suffered not from the actions by the authorities, but by the demonstrators, show their attitude to the case this way. But it would be better if they came to court; that is, the investigators are using a trick. There are gross violations also against those who want to attend court hearings," the lawyer said.