YEREVAN, JULY 15, NOYAN TAPAN. The accused Ara Karapetian gave testimony at the July 13 court sitting on the case of the robbery of the house of Armen Avetisian, former chairman of the State Customs Committee of Armenia. According to the indictment, A. Karapetian and former deputy chief of the police unit in Soviet district of Yerevan Armen Nikoghosian organized a criminal group to commit various crimes. "I have not committed any crime and I do not plead guilty," A. Karapetian said, adding that he has no relation to thefts of jewelry in U.S. shops. In his words, he appeared in this case only because by some concurrence of circumstances he got 45 million drams worth of goods stolen from A. Avetisian's house and he returned those goods to A. Avetisian through a mediator. Karapetian considered the charge brought against him as trumped-up. "Maybe I or my business bothered some people, I don’t know," said the accused who owns "As" supermarket and "The City of Footwear" shop in Yerevan. He noted that he was a successful businessman in both the U.S. and Yerevan, in particular, a monthly income of $82 thousand was his worst index in Yerevan, and in the period of September 2007 to September 2009 he paid about $1 million in taxes to the state budget. He said that the case investigated by the investigation department of the National Security Service is full of evidences which contradict each other and logic, but the investigation body did not consider it necessary to question the persons to have given contradictory testimonies by confronting them with each other. In the words of A. Karapetian, the 12-volume case has no single line that can prove his guilt as an organizer. He declared that in conducting an investigation into his case, the investigation body violated Articles 20, 21 and 22 of the Constitution, that is, the articles related to the right to have a defense lawyer at one’s choice, the principle of presumption of innocence, and the use of evidence obtained in violation of the law.

---