COURT OF APPEAL TO ANNOUNCE VERDICT ON CASE OF ASSASSINATION OF HEAD OF PUBLIC TV AND RADIO COMPANY OF ARMENIA

PanARMENIAN.Net - The Armenian Court of Appeal for military and criminal cases today will announce the verdict on the case of assassination of chairman of the Council of the Public TV and Radio Company of Armenia Tigran Naghdalian. It should be reminded that the court of first instance has sentenced Armen Sargsian (brother of former prime minister of Armenia Vazgen Sargsian), who ordered the murder, and the crime executor John Harutyunian to 15 years of imprisonment each. The rest of the accomplices - Grigor Petrosian, Felix Harutyunian, Gegham Shahbazian and Hovhannes Harutyunian - are sentenced to various terms of deprivation of liberty - from 7 to 12 years. The verdict of the court of first instance was appealed against by all the accused, except John Harutyunian, who confessed his guilt. Armen Sargsian stated in the course of past sittings of the Court of Appeal that he only recognized himself guilty of concealing the name of the actual criminal, hampering the revelation of the case, as well as yielding to blackmailing and giving money to the criminals. Meanwhile, in the opinion of the prosecution, none of the proofs of the crime was rejected at the Court of Appeal and four out of the five complaints should be turned down. The only thing to be changed is the preventive punishment regarding convict Grigor Petrosian - the sentence of 7 years of imprisonment has to be reduced to 5 years. It should be reminded that Tigran Naghdalian was killed in December 2002 by a shot in the head next to his parents' house.