Aram Sargsyan Does Not Recognize Other Accused in the 'Gagik Soghomonyan' Case

The hearing on the motion to change the detention of Aram Sargsyan, the only accused in the 'Gagik Soghomonyan' fake case, will take place on March 10. Aram Sargsyan's attorney, Benik Galstyan, told ArmDaily.am that the first hearing in the Court of Appeal was held on March 5, but the court decided to postpone the hearing due to its workload.

"My expectation from the court is one: regardless of whether the other accused in this case have been released or not, I expect that this man will be released, because he has not done anything," the lawyer stated.

He noted that according to the materials of the case, there is one IP address that was used by Gagik Soghomonyan between October 10-15. "It was used by Soghomonyan himself, or by the person using that page—I don't know. On October 15, my client also used the same IP address, and interestingly, according to the National Security Service, Gagik Soghomonyan entered Facebook on February 18, but the NSS has no information on whether there was access through this IP address. This means they don’t have information about February; the only information is from October 10-15. The logic is that if he logged in, then through this address, it’s the same as what is said in a famous comic: 'if it's round, then it’s an orange.' In February, Gagik Soghomonyan made a post on Facebook at 20:42, and my client logged into the internet using the same IP at 20:48, that is, 6 minutes later—naturally, you can't rewind internet time. It sounds absurd, but the NSS does not have any other evidential data regarding my client," Galstyan emphasized.

When asked whether Sargsyan has any connection with the other suspects in this case, the lawyer said, "Of course, there is a connection; they are all Armenian people, but there is no other connection. He doesn't even recognize these people; perhaps he has seen them on television. But you know, my client has been in a correctional facility for 16 days now, and he is starting to have sticky thoughts, saying, 'Maybe I do recognize these people,' and it's both laughable and tragic in this situation. Furthermore, the other accused do not recognize Sargsyan either," the lawyer added.

It is noteworthy that recently, Arik Sahakelyan, the former head of the RA National Assembly Staff, who is accused in this case, was released by the decision of the Court of Appeal, and earlier, Karen Bekaryan had also been released.