Hearing in domestic violence case adjourned
A court in Masis city today continued hearing in the murder case of Zaruhi Petrosyan, a 20-year-old woman in Armenia's central Ararat marz, who was beaten to death by her husband and mother-in-law in October, 2010.
Zaruhi's husband, Yanis Sarkisov, was arrested in summer, 2010 on charges of murdering his wife.
The court questioned witnesses David Hakobyan, Deputy Director of the Agricultural College in Masis, and Elizabeth Hovsepyan, a neighbour of Petrosyan.
The defence counsel motioned the court to examine the mobile phone of Yanis's sister-in-law [brother's wife], from which, Zaruhi had allegedly sent messages about her intention to commit suicide.
The next court sitting is set for August 2.
Zaruhi's death caused anger among local civil society organizations dealing with domestic violence. Seven non-governmental organizations formed a Coalition to Stop Violence against Women in Armenia, which aims at calling for justice in the death of the woman, so that a fair and just verdict is issued in the case against her abusers.
According to a police report, Zaruhi Petrosyan had been taken to hospital in Masis with cranial brain hemorrhages, a broken finger and bruises in different parts of her body. Despite that, shortly before her death on October 1, Petrosyan testified that she had received those traumas as a result of fainting and falling down.
The woman's friends and neighbors insist, however, that the young woman was killed in consequence of brutal beatings that she had suffered at the hands of her husband and mother-in-law.
Petrosyan was mother of an 18-month child.
