The charge brought against Ukrainian citizen Bogdan Kaliusskyi has been changed, yet the criminal case has not been terminated
10:58, June 25, 2018 | News, Own news
Ukrainian citizen Bogdan Kaliusskyi, who was released on bail on May 24, 2018, is still being prosecuted by the RA law enforcement agencies.
The charge of forgery of documents and illegal state border crossing that was brought against him was changed on June 4, 2018, and now he is charged with forgery of documents under Article 325 § 1 of the RA Criminal Code.
The RA Investigative Committee based the charge on the circumstance of B. Kaliusskyi carrying out bank transactions in two RA banks, using the passport he had before changing his name, and his previous name Maksim Baidak.
It should be noted that this act is not criminally punishable under the RA legislation. It is clearly established through the RA domestic law and international legislative acts that a punishment may be imposed only if the act is considered a crime and the law provides for a punishment for that act.
In this given case, none of these factors exists. The Embassy of Ukraine also evidenced the fact that Maksim Baidak changed his name and surname legally and received a passport with the name and surname Maksim Kaliusskyi. With this regard, the Embassy provided a relevant document which we have already published.
The RA law does not provide for a punishment for using a previous passport after receiving a new one. Apart from this, the previous passport cannot be considered forged as it is considered that a forged document is the distortion of the text, contents or the information in the original document, or the preparation of a completely fake document. The passport used by Bogdan Kaliusskyi does not fall under any of these points. Moreover, the body conducting the proceedings has not assigned any examinations to support the allegation that the document is forged.
On this ground, on June 11, 2018, HCA Vanadzor advocates Arayik Zalyan and Ani Chatinyan, Bogdan Kaliusskyi’s defenders, applied to Prosecutor General of the RA A. Davtyan in connection with the issue of terminating the criminal case and the prosecution against B. Kaliusskyi.