Information regarding our legal battle in Armenia – Update as of Feb. 17, 2005

Dear Friends:

This morning, Feb. 17, the hearing was again postponed --this time because one of the three judges was ill. Two judges entered the courtroom and within one minute made their announcement to the filled courtroom: hearing postponed until Feb. 24 at 11:00 am.

However, the following make this reason suspect:

1. Our attorneys were not notified and appeared in court; the investigators who brought the case were not present in the courtroom --obviously they knew there would be no hearing today;
2. Igityan, the perpetrator, was in the courtroom looking for journalists to interview him as soon as the postponement was announced; previously, as some journalists have noted in their reporting on the case, he ran from them.
3. The people who came to observe the hearing became furious at the postponement – the complicity of the judiciary in the process fully transparent to those present. People expressed their outrage to the TV crews while interviews with Igityan were being conducted.

We have no words to express our outrage at this shameful and open display of contempt by the judiciary for its own process ---for itself. President Kocharian has repeatedly told people who have asked him to guarantee a fair hearing of this case that he would not interfere (no one asked him to), but that the case is in the judicial system and must take its course. Is this what he had in mind?

For those who read Armenian, please go to www.azg.am to read coverage of our case. Azg has also published in their daily newpaper in Armenia a 4 page article including photos of Carolann from 1992 in Stepanagert and Shushi delivering medical supplies. Also, see updated articles in
www.hetq.am (Follow the Court Link)

Watch for an article on www.ArmeniaNow.com – to be posted today or tomorrow.

For those who have satellite connections for Armenia, watch ArmeniaTV today and on Sunday for coverage. (If we learn the exact time we’ll let you know)

Dear Friends: We need more letters – but this time to the press. Please take two minutes to write.
I am attaching email addresses for Armenian-American newspapers in the US.

We would love nothing more than to walk away now but we know it would be the wrong thing to do. We are getting very tired of this. Thank you for your perseverance and willingness to stick it out with us. This is no longer about two pieces of property and the fraud committed against us. Indeed, as we wrote some months ago, ‘…the pain goes very deep’ – not for us, but for the suffering of the many honest men and women in Armenia who must live under a government ‘not of law but of men’.

Carolann and George Najarian