Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly-Vanadzor

On December 5, 2019, the RA Prosecutor General’s Office released a statement that as a result of examining the judicial acts -based on the prima facie violations of convention rights - on 10 persons who had participated in the events following the presidential elections in 2008, the RA Prosecutor General made cassation appeals. Eight of them were based on the violation of the procedural law by undermining the very essence of justice by court.   

In connection with the aforementioned, Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly-Vanadzor reminds that  the Organization has, for quite a long time, been engaged in the protection of Artur Kocharyan’s rights, who was charged with murdering a fellow serviceman in 2005 and sentenced to life imprisonment.  

The Organization examined the criminal case of public resonance and recorded, as a result, that sufficient proofs on A.Kocharyan’s guilt had not been obtained and the indictment and judgments are solely based on the testimony given by one of the fellow servicemen, Andranik Karapetyan, who had certain interest in the outcome of the case, the judicial acts made in the frame of the case are illegal and ill-founded. 

Let us remind that back in February and May 2019, A. Zalyan, Artur Kocharyan’s defender and HCA Vanadzor lawyer, applied to the RA Cassation Court claiming to initiate proceedings to review the case. Regarding the two cassation complaints, the Court of Cassation made one groundless decision to refuse to accept the proceedings.  Lawyer A. Zalyan also applied to the RA Minister of Justice R. Badasyan to initiate disciplinary proceedings against the RA Court of Cassation judges L. Tadevosyan, E. Danielyan, A. Poghosyan and S. Ohanyan, who had made the aforementioned decision. A. Zalyan particularly stressed the time period of judge L.Tadevosyan’s biography, when during the period coinciding with the examination of the controversial criminal case (2006-2007) L. Tadevosyan was the Prosecutor of the Department of the protection of charges in courts in the frame of criminal cases of the RA Prosecutor General’s Office, in 2011 she was Prosecutor of the Department of corruption and organized crimes cases of the RA Prosecutor General’s Office, in 2011-2012 she was the Senior Prosecutor of the same Department, which makes an impression on anyone having no connection with the case that L. Tadevosyan had certain interest in making such a decision.

The Ministry of Justice refused the application to initiate disciplinary proceedings against the judges, reasoning that the application was groundless. 

In the context of the recent actions of the RA Prosecutor General, on December 13, 2019, HCA Vanadzor lawyer Arayik Zalyan applied to the RA Prosecutor General Artur Davtyan, claiming to apply to the RA Cassation Court to initiate judicial review based on the fundamental violations of Artur Kocharyan’s procedural right. 

No response has been received from the RA Prosecutor General’s Office yet. 

Once more, HCA Vanadzor records that the judicial act on the mentioned criminal case is unlawful and groundless, it violates, prima facie, the essence of justice and the law enforcement bodies should be taking measures to initiate judicial review of the criminal case as soon as possible.