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Andranik and Narine Poghosyans, successors of Araksya Poghosyan, victim in the Avetisyans family murder case, lodged a complaint, with the support of HCA Vanadzor, against Russian Federation to the European Court of Human Rights on violations of the rights under Article 2 (Right to life) and Article 13 (Right to effective remedy) of the European Convention on Human Rights. The complaint was substantiated by the fact that there were substantial and procedural violations within the sense of Article 2 of the ECHR. In his interview to Lragir.am, Artur Sakunts, Chairman of Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly-Vanadzor and representative of the successor of the Avetisyans, stated that if the ECtHR upheld the complaint, Russian Federation would have to pay compensation. “The application is drawn up based on the case files since the Russian side initiated criminal proceedings and failed to involve the relatives of the Avetisyans family as successors of victims”, added the human rights defender. In response to the question on whether the RA authorities should have set out a relevant requirement, Sakunts said that the trial proceedings showed that the authorities were not ready to take any steps against the interests of Russian Federation.

“As of today, the trial proceedings are still in progress and based on such proceedings, we have drawn a definite conclusion that the judge is constrained by something; Armenia, represented by its authorities, is not ready to act in defense of the interests of its own citizens.” As to further developments in the trial proceedings, the human rights defender does not rush into any assessments. According to him, from the very start, holding the court hearings on the territory of the Russian military base and the judge’s approach to the motions, namely his negative attitude to the motions evidently well-grounded in legal terms, come to prove that the Armenian political authorities are obviously involved in the trial proceedings and dictate to the judge what to do. “We know that the court is not independent, but nowadays it becomes more than clear that at the moment the court obeys the order of the political authorities to behave the way the authorities themselves do in their relations with the Russian political leaders,” the human rights defender said.

lragir.am