The Court of Appeals started the trial of 4 appeals over Vahan Khalafyan’s case
00:00, February 4, 2011 | Press Release | Right to be free from torture and inhuman or degrading treatment, Right to Fair Trial, Right to Life | Police
On Thursday the Court of Criminal Appeals started the trial of the four appeals with the case of Vahan Khalafyan.
All the parties are discontented with the verdict made by the Court of First Instance over 24-year-old Vahan Khalafyan’s case, who, according to his relatives was forcefully brought to Charentsavan Police Department on April 13, 2010 and then killed there, while the official version states that he committed a suicide.
Vahan Khalafyan’s successor, the aggrieved party of the case, claims that the verdict taken by the Court of First Instance be abrogated and Ashot Harutyunyan, the former head of the Criminal Investigation Department of Charentsavan Police Department, be confined to a 8-year imprisonment not for pushing Vahan Khalafyan to commit suicide, but for exerting violence upon him.
The aggrieved party also claimed a more stringent punishment for police officer on operative cases Mores Hayrapetyan by replacing the arrest on condition with imprisonment and abrogating the resolution that justified police officers Garik Davtyan and Gagik Ghazaryan.
The accused party also applied to the Court of Appeals with a claim to rescind the verdict justifying the latter. Ashot Harutyunyan, in his turn, requires the criminal case be returned to the Court of First Instance and be examined with a new court staff. Pursuant to his lawyer Seda Safaryan, “convicting Ashot Harutyunyan under this article is absurd until the circumstances over Vahan Khalafyan’s death are precisely defined.” Mores Hayrapetyan also submitted claims to the Court of Appeals. He requires stopping criminal prosecution against himself. It’s worth mentioning that Ashot Harutyunyan announced in the court that Mores Hayrapetyan had unconsciously caused death to Vahan Khalafyan. He also mentioned that he had seen a knife in Mores Hayrapetyan’s hand.
The Court of Appeals has made a decision, according to which, the 4 appeals should be tried all together in a cassation procedure, that is, without investigating the evidences in detail. It is also mentioned in the resolution that there no solicitations have been submitted for the investigation of new evidences. While according to Artak Zeynalyan, the representative of the victim’s successor, they have filed a solicitation to the Court of Appeals to investigate new evidences, particularly, to interrogate the former head of Charentsavan Police Department and his deputy Samvel Tonoyan, still holding his office, as well as to perform an investigation testing to verify the version how Vahan Khalafyan could have taken the knife from the police station, then stabbed himself twice at the presence of the policemen.
In the court the aggrieved party compared the aforementioned solicitations with the resolution taken by the Court of Appeals and announced that Judges Aida Hovhannisyan, Yeva Darbinyan, and Sergey Chichoyan are biased, thereby presenting a challenge petition to the judges. Ashot Harutyunyan and his lawyer joined the victim’s solicitation.
The accuser Harutyun Harutyunyan asked not to accept the challenge petition. Mores Hayrapetyan agreed with the accusers by also requesting to reject the challenge petition. The court rejected the challenge petition of the judges.
Then the aggrieved party also submitted a challenge petition to the accusers Koryun Piloyan and Harutyun Harutyunyan, noting that the preliminary investigation body had considered only the version of Vahan Khalafyan’s suicide, which was not considered convincing by the aggrieved party.
The court also rejected the challenge petition submitted to the prosecutors then the session was postponed till February 22.