The trial of the "March 1st Seven" continued today with Judge Mnatsakan Martirosyan clarifying the recent changes to the RoA Criminal Code. Defendant Alexander Arzumanian called attention to the fact that according to changes made to Article 314 of the Code the trial could continue even if defendants are removed from the court room. Mr. Arzumanian noted that this conflicted with Article 23 of the Code which states that the presence of all parties to an ongoing court case is mandatory. Thus he declared that the court must abide to Article 23 since contradictory changes introduced complicate rather than ameliorate matters. It appeared that Judge Martirosyan was unable to clarify the apparent contradiction in the Code. Afterwards, Mr. Arzumanian's defense attorney, Liparit Simonyan, mad a motion for the judge to recuse himself from the case. The attorney detailed the fact that the changes to the Criminal Code took effect as of March 1 and that Judge Martirosyan passed a decision that he would preside over the case back on February 27. Attorney Simonyan argued that such a decision could only have been passed after March 1 and only by the President of Kentron and Nork-Marash Court of First Instance since the court proceedings had been transferred there. Based on this, the attorney argued that Judge Martirosyan had displayed prejudice and that he was obliged to sustain the recusal motion. The other defense lawyers soon signed on to the recusal motion made by Mr. Simonyan. Alexander Arzumanyan suggested that the court desist in making such illegal decisions and travesties. "The National Assembly, on the admonishment of those doing the prosecuting, are changing the law, changes that are full of contradictions," he stated and demanded that the judge record the fact that Articles 23 and 314.1 contradict each other and that the judge follow Article 23. Prosecutor Koryun Piloyan argued that the motions of the defense lawyers were baseless and that they only sought to have the trial start anew, to go through a new preliminary examination stage and to delay the trial. He argues that the judge's decision to go ahead with the trial under the same presiding judge and staff was totally legal. Defendant Suren Sirounyan refuted the prosecutor's comments about delaying tactics and stated, "I now have a temperature of 38.5 but I showed up today just to make sure the trial isn't postponed on my account. I also showed up to one of the earlier trial dates after having undergone surgery. What delaying tactics are you talking about?" he asked. Judge Martirosyan called a two hour recess to examine and pass sentence on the motion made by Attorney Simonyan.