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On April 15, 2014, the advocates in Lori Marz (Region) released a statement airing their indignation with the unprecedented incident at the hearing in Lori Region Court of General Jurisdiction of April 11, 2014 on the criminal case of Hamayak Sahakyan. In the beginning of the hearing, the judge Suren Baghdasaryan forbade H. Sahakyan’s advocate Artak Voskanyan to attend the trial on the grounds of his removal from the case.

According to the statement above, by doing so, judge Suren Baghdasaryan not only blatantly violated the defendant’s right to defense by an advocate of his own choice stipulated by the RA Constitution and Convention, but also obstructed the exercise of advocate A. Voskanyan’s powers by his forced removal from the court.

30 advocates in Lori Region qualified the judge’s actions as illegal in their statement.

In response to advocates’ statement, Arsen Babayan, Head of the International Cooperation and Public Relations Service of RA Judicial Department noted that he had explored the grounds underlying the advocates’ complaint over the criminal case in question and provided a list of court hearings delayed due to the advocate’s failure to attend them.

Main directions of ‘Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly Vanadzor’ human rights NGO activities cover fostering judicial independence as a guarantee for the right to fair trial.

Considering the significance of the issue raised by advocates and the arguments of the representative of the Judicial Department, the Organization will monitor the case in question and accordingly state its position.