The first instance court ruling on the case of the doctor charged with the death of 2 children remained unchanged
18:24, November 29, 2016 | News, Own news | Karine Hovhannisyan
On November 23, 2016, the RA Court of Criminal Appeals resumed examination of the appeals of the parties to the trial under the case of doctor Anahit Petrosyan charged with the death of 2 children.
At the very beginning of the court hearing, the defense party submitted a motion on reviewing the case under appeal procedure.
Ani Chatinyan, lawyer at HCA Vanadzor and representative of victim Karine Hovhannisyan’s successor, objected to the defense party’s motion on reviewing the case under appeal procedure and noted that while the case was examined by the first instance court, the defense party was not deprived of the opportunity to submit motions, all its motions were granted, a number of witnesses were summoned and questioned by the court and there were neither any necessity nor grounds to hear the same witnesses again or attach any new documents to the case.
As for assigning an expert examination and submitting medical documents on the victim, despite such an opportunity, the defense party did not submit any such motion to the first instance court.
Thus, the court met all the requirements of comprehensive, thorough and impartial examination.
Considering the motion of the defense party, the Court ruled to reject it and resume the examination of the case under the cassation procedure.
Considering the examination of the appeals completed, the Court withdrew to the deliberation room to make a ruling and by its ruling announced shortly after rejected the appeals by upholding the judgment of the General Jurisdiction Court of Armavir marz (region) of June 2 by which Anahit Petrosyan was sentenced to 3 years’ imprisonment and deprived of the right to practice medicine for 1 year and 6 months.
However, according to attorney Ani Chatinyan, the sentence imposed on the defendant is inadequate and cannot serve its purpose either in terms of restoring the social justice, or preventing similar crimes in the future.
In this context, it is noteworthy that throughout the trial examination lasting for 1.5 years, it was only in the Court of Appeals courtroom that the doctor charged with the death of 2 children for the first time conveyed her condolences to the victim party.
Attorney Ani Chatinyan, representative of victim Karine Hovhhanisyan’s successor, will appeal the ruling before the Court of Cassation.