Founding Parliament Member Hovhannes Ghazaryan’s representative to apply to European Court
17:28, March 3, 2016 | News, Own news
As already reported by Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly Vanadzor, along with a number of other Founding Parliament members, Hovhannes Ghazaryan, Lori Marz (Region) Coordinator of the Founding Parliament, suffered political persecution; particularly, on April 7, 2015, his apartment and office were searched, and afterwards he was apprehended as a witness to the RA Investigation Department for High-Profile Cases without any legal grounds and was kept there for 11 hours.
To protect Hovhannes Ghazaryan’s rights, Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly Vanadzor involved lawyers A. Harutyunyan and A. Sukiasyan.
To return the items illegally confiscated from him during the search and require the copies of the court ruling on permitting the search, the Organization filed an application with the Investigation Department for High-Profile Cases. After the dismissal of the application, the Organization applied to the Prosecutor’s Office and then to a court of law.
The General Jurisdiction Court of Kentron and Nork-Marash administrative districts, Yerevan, upheld the appeal partially by enabling Hovhannes Ghazaryan to exercise the rights of a suspect or accused, i.e. to get familiar with and copy the protocols of the investigative and other procedural actions where he took part. The Court also gave instructions to the relevant agency to decide on the complaint of May 13, 2015.
The Court rejected the requirements of factual recognition of violating the rights during the search in Hovhannes Ghazaryan’s apartment and office on April 4, 2015 and return of the seized items. Therefore, an appeal was filed with the Court of Appeal.
On October 19, 2015, the Court of Criminal Appeals dismissed the appeal.
On November 14, 2015, Artur Sukiasyan, representative of Hovhannes Ghazaryan, appealed the ruling above of the RA Court of Criminal Appeals to the Court of Cassation.
By its ruling of February 23, 2016, the RA Court of Cassation refused to admit the appeal of Artur Sukiasyan, Hovhannes Ghazaryan’s representative on the pretext that the grounds under Article 414.2 (Admitting cassation appeals) (1)(1) and (2) of the RA Criminal Procedure Code were not substantiated (cassation appeals shall be admitted, if the Cassation Court concludes that: 1) the Court of Cassation ruling on the issue raised in the appeal might be essential for the uniform application of law; 2) prima facie, a judicial error has been made which might have influenced the outcome of the case).
The RA Cassation Court found as follows, “… The arguments brought by the applicant is not sufficient to conclude that the ruling of the Cassation Court on the issues raised in the appeal might play an essential role in the uniform application of the law, and that prima, facie, a judicial error has been made, which might have influenced the outcome of the case.”
Hovhannes Ghazaryan’s representatives A. Sukiasyan and A. Harutyunyan, intend to apply to the European Court.