COURT TO CONTINUE CONSIDERING APPEALS OF ACCUSED ON TIGRAN NAGHDALIAN ASSASSINATION CASE

The Court of Appeal for Military and Criminal Cases of Armenia today will resume consideration of the complaints of the accused on the case of assassination of chairman of the Council of the Public TV and Radio Company Tigran Naghdalian. It should be reminded that the court of original jurisdiction has sentenced Armen Sargsian (brother of former Armenian prime minister Vazgen Sargsian), who had ordered the murder, and John Harutyunian, who is the executor of the crime, to 15 years of deprivation of liberty each. The rest of the accomplices are condemned to terms of imprisonment varying from 7 to 12 years. The verdict of the court of original jurisdiction was appealed against by all the accused, except John Harutyunian, who owned up to the crime. Armen Sargsian said in the course of past sittings of the Court of Appeal that he recognized himself guilty only in not giving away the name of the actual criminal, hampered the revelation of the crime, as well as in yielding to blackmailing and giving money to the criminals. It should be reminded that Tigran Naghdalian was killed December 28, 2002 by a shot in his head next to the house of his parents.