Today Witnesses at Court Defended Environmental Activist Yeghia Nersessian

On August 1 witnesses for the defense Mariam Sukhudyan and Gevorg Safaryan made their testimonies at the trial of Dundee Precious Metals Kapan company’s claim against environmental activist Yeghia Nersessian at the court hearing held at Arabkir and Qanaqer-Zeytoun General Jurisdiction Court. Yeghia Nersessian’s Defense Council Tigran Yegoryan considered testimonies as important. “There are people and some environmental activists among these people, particularly our witnesses, who met and were aware that electric shock was applied toward more than one person. There are problems, and it would be better if people came to make a testimony, but our witnesses said they were afraid to speak about this even during isolated conversations. It’s important for the case that Yeghia Nersessian received information from different sources that Deno Gold Company applied electroshock towards several workers, made efforts and tried to verify the authenticity of this information: as a result, he received additional confirmation, afterwards he made a public statement, which complies with the concept of reasonable publicity. In this regard, Yeghia is exonerated from responsibility.”

The witnesses precisely mentioned the sources of information, specified the names of the people, from whom they got the information, they pointed out the people who can confirm that the information had been received from the victims and there is no doubt about the reliability of the information and its source,” the lawyer said. In reply to the question whether it’s possible to see the victims as witnesses at court, Tigran Yegoryan said that in the atmosphere of fear the victims are afraid to voice it.

The witness for the plaintiff didn’t appear at the court. The next court hearing will be held at 11:30 a.m. on 26 August.