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The NKR Prosecutor General has initiated a case againstthe RA citizen, Manvel Hazroyan and summoned his advocate Edmon Marukyan to Stepanakert to give testimony, otherwise threatening “to bring him under coercion.”

Marukyan’s reports about violence used against him and his defendant, as well as hindering the work of the journalists have been left unaddressed. Yesterday,Edmon Markuyan, the advocate of Manvel Hazroyan, who was sentenced to life in prison for causing gunfire injuries to 8 soldiers (4 of which died), presented his complaints to 1in.am.

To make this article clear,during the field trial in the NKR Capital City of Stepanakert, upon hearing the verdict of a life sentence for his conviction, Hazroyan threw a plastic bottle of mineral water at Judge H. Davtyan, who is the judge of Syunik Region Court of Common Jurisdiction.The police officers from the NKR “Shushi” Penitentiary, who were on duty as the judicial bailiffs, handcuffed Hazroyan, removed the journalists and the client’s relatives from the court room, and then beat up Hazroyan in the presence of the judge and advocate, Edmon Marukyan. They then began to shout, push, and shove the advocate out of the courtroom. Later the defendant, Hazroyan, was beaten by the police as he was put into the carand taken to the penitentiary.

The advocate considers the situation concerningthe criminal case of hitting the judge with a plastic bottle, a legal casus (contradiction): ‘The investigatorhas made a separate decision not to conduct a criminal prosecution for Hazoryan’s violent beating and for removing the journalists from the courtroom. I am talking about the investigator from Karabakh, whose decision is not clear to me, and it is not clear where we can appeal. Although I haveappealed to the Prosecutor General of Armenia concerning the situation itis still unclear. We can appeal to the Prosecutor General of Armenia as the case is already in Armenia and we initially submitted our report to the Prosecutor General of Armenia, so we do not have anything to do with the prosecutor’s office in NKR.’ Besides, E. Marukyan states that he,(the defense attorney) has received a summons from the NKR investigator of the prosecutor’s office to give testimony against his defendant”.

Onlyrecently, towards the end of the preliminary investigation, has the advocate discovered that the NKR investigator hadalso made a decision to apprehend the advocate, who is an Armenian citizen. The investigator had appealed to the Chief of the NKR Police to carry out the decision. But fortunately, this gross violation ofthelaw was not carried out, presenting an excuse to conceal the unlawful action. ‘Later they appealed to the Chief of Police to dismiss the request,motivated by the intention of sending the case to Armenia. But the decision to apprehend me exists,’ stated the lawyer who was being prompted to do illegal actions towards his defendant; for example to disclose an attorney confidence or endanger his defendant instead of defending him.

We enquired if he is going to appeal the investigator’s decision. ‘The decision…actually there are no dates to appeal, and I don’t even know where I can appeal. This is just evidence that there is a series of illegal actions towards a lawyer and no authorized state agency of the Republic of Armenia intercedes, even though we have informed all authorized agencies that we had received such a note,’ complained the lawyer, adding ‘Just to punish the person, which is actually a legal casus(contradiction) and nonsense.’

Source: www.1in.am