YEREVAN, DECEMBER 22, NOYAN TAPAN. The court of first instance of Yerevan's Kentron and Nork-Marash communities on December 21 finished the questioning of the defendants in the case of robberies of two foreign currency exchange offices in Yerevan. The fifth defendant Hayk Sargsian also stated that the robberies were "naive and violent", and the actions of the group should not be qualified as "banditry". He said that he does not insist on his preliminary testimony which is incorrect by 80%. Prior to the two robberies H. Sargsian went to these foreign currency exchange offices to ascertain the situation - the availability of money and the number of employees in the offices, then he left to wait for other members of the group in a taxi. In his words, he "knew very little about what had happened" after the first robbery (which resulted in a victim), thus he rejected his preliminary testimony, according to which he was better informed. After questioning the defendants, the court started examining the written evidence and documents. At the next court sitting on December 28, the court will consider the conclusion of the forensic medical examination of the victim Artur Mkrtchian in response to the petition of the lawyers, who want to find out the causes of the victim's death. According to the defendants' testimonies, the defendant Andranik Torosian fired at A. Mkrtchian from a gun, while the defendant Sergei Movsisian hit the victim with a knife.

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