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On September 1, 2015, the First Instance Court of General Jurisdiction of Kentron and Nork-Marash administrative districts, Yerevan, RA, presided by M. Makyan, resumed examination of victim’s successor Susanna Antonyan’s representatives Artur Sakunts’ and Arayik Zalyan’s appeal on the criminal proceedings of Arman Antonyan’s death. The hearing was attended by the appellant’s representative A. Sakunts, Yerevan City Prosecutor’s Office Kentron and Nork-Marash administrative districts Prosecutor’s Office Prosecutor H. Sargsyan and RA Investigative Committee Yerevan Investigative Department Kentron and Nork-Marash administrative districts Investigation Division investigator A. Geghamyan. While presenting the procedural background of the case, A. Sakunts drew the attention of the Court to the inefficient preliminary investigation under the criminal proceedings which should have provided a complete, objective and impartial analysis of the factual data to refute the victim’s successor’s allegations that her son had contracted the deadly disease during his examination and treatment by doctor A. Baghdasaryan. A. Sakunts insisted that the investigating agency failed to take any urgent investigative actions and particularly any actions to seize A. Antonyan’s records and other essential items from the Sexopathologic Rehabilitation Center. Also, it failed to trace the circle and diagnoses of the persons receiving treatment at the Center at the same time as A. Antonyan did. According to the forensic expert examination opinions, the time he developed the disease coincides with the time of his treatment at the Center. A. Sakunts also substantiated the fact that A. Antonyan might have contracted hepatitis B only through medical interventions. In the appeal, A. Sakunts raised a number of other issues not revealed during the preliminary investigation and insisted on the appeal through demanding to stop violations of the appellant’s rights and freedoms and forward the case to preliminary investigation. In response of presiding judge M. Makyan’s question on the significance of establishing the fact of absence of any medical records, A. Sakunts said that such records might have been made unavailable deliberately. Investigator Geghamyan responsible for the proceedings claimed to have collected the criminal case files in compliance with the requirements of Article 17, RA Criminal Procedure Code, as well as verified all the possible versions and taken measures to reveal violations, if any, by both the Sexopathologic Rehabilitation Center and the Vanadzor Medical Center. He also added that A. Antonyan’s medical records had not been seized due to the fact that the files had been at the preparation stage, and it was impossible to do so then. He also stated that no hepatitis B statistics by persons was held for the purposes of medical secrecy and upon the treatment, the medical records had been issued under relevant Governmental decree. Prosecutor H. Sargsyan who had overseen the preliminary investigation, requested the Court to dismiss the appeal based on the fact that the 3 expert examinations under the proceedings revealed no evidence of violated professional duties. A. Sakunts considered it necessary to add that the RA Cassation Court decree on this case identified a series of questions that remained unanswered during the initial preliminary investigation. Particularly, he pointed out the shortcomings identified by the RA Cassation Court and noted that nevertheless, the preliminary investigation following the ruling above also failed to find answers to such questions. In his turn, A. Geghamyan, responsible for the proceedings, said that the violations identified by the RA Cassation Court were removed subsequently. Presiding judge M. Makyan stated that the Court needed to examine some evidence on issuing the medical records to the patient and adjourned the court hearing till September 15, 2015, 4: 30 pm.

Note that in the period of January 17-February 27, 2010, A. Antonyan received treatment for infertility at the Yerevan Sexopathologic Rehabilitation Center. In late March, 2010, A. Antonyan’s health deteriorated rapidly, and he was taken first to Vanadzor Medical Complex № 1 and then to Infection Hospital. On April 1, 2010, unconscious and in coma, he was taken to Yerevan Nork Infection Clinic where he later died of hepatitis В. Consequently, criminal proceedings were launched under Article 130, RA Criminal Code, failure to fulfill or inadequate fulfillment of professional duties by medical and support workers. Later the proceedings above were discontinued. The decree on discontinuing the criminal proceedings was appealed as prescribed by law first to the prosecutor’s office and then to a court of law on the grounds that the victim’s family had no access to the preliminary investigation.