14 March 2009, 08:00
Armenia: all "Case of Seven" figurants removed from hearings
On March 13, Mnatsakan Martirosyan, Judge in the "Case of Seven", removed away from the courtroom for the period of 10 days Grigor Voskerchyan, the only defendant who was allowed to be present at judicial hearings. The others were removed on March 9.
The Judge made a decision to remove Voskerchyan after the defendant again refused to stand up when the Judge entered the room. To the question whether it was caused by his state of health, the defendant answered that he would not stand up under any circumstances, as the "Tert.am" Agency reports.
The previous court session on March 12 was stopped because of Grigor Voskerchyan's poor state of health. He had a sharp rise of arterial pressure, and the session was postponed till March 13, as the "News Armenia" reports.
At the session on March 9, five defendants were also removed from the courtroom for 10 days for disrespect of the court, and the proceedings in relation to Shant Arutyunyan were suspended as he was sent to psychiatric examination.
