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The powers of the Syunik Region Court of Common Jurisdiction Judge Hamlet Davtyan have been suspended due to health related issues pursuant to his own application. We were notified about this from the Judicial Department, when we wanted to find out within the scopes of which case Davtyan’s powers were suspended.  It should be noted that the Syunik Region Court of Common Jurisdiction holds its court hearings in Stepanakert, the capital of NKR, while, Davtyan has constantly heard military cases.  The advocates and human rights defenders having partaken in the court trials over military cases have always voiced about unfair trials conducted over the aforementioned cases, however, no tangible results have been recorded, since Davtyan and in general, judges trying military cases basically implement a role of approving of the accusations brought up by the Military Prosecutor’s Office. No more than that. It is quite difficult to recall one single case over a soldier’s death until present, which has been actually revealed, a comprehensive preliminary investigation has been conducted and a fair trial has been implemented.  The lack of suchlike cases comes to testify that the judges, hearing similar cases, are the implementers of the orders given by the Military Prosecutor’s Office.  The fact of suspension of his powers due to health issues seem unreliable to the advocates and human rights defenders over military cases, who happened to deal with Judge Davtyan.

Human rights defender Artur Sakunts, who served as the victim’s successor over two cases of Dimaksyan and Varyan doesn’t recall one single case, when the court trial was put off because of the Judge’s health related issues.

“ I don’t want to foretell, since I don’t know what those having discharged him had on their  minds, but I can definitely affirm that no court hearing was cancelled conditioned by the health issues of Judge Hamlet Davtyan”, he stated.

Edmon Maroukyan, defense attorney over Manvel Hazroyan’s case, doesn’t either recall such a case. However, the latter assumes that the reason for Davtyan’s application could be the latest amendments to the law. The NA has recently made an amendment to the law, whereby, those who had health issues, and couldn’t leave their jobs only since they didn’t have a defined seniority to get a judge’s pension, can leave their jobs on the grounds of health problems and get a judge’s pension now that the law has been adopted. In Maroukyan’s opinion, Davtyan could have left his job just on such grounds. He didn’t particularly want to speak of the lawfulness of court trials conducted by Davtyan. “A verdict was reached over Hazroyan’s case in particular, which was appealed. If it was appealed, it means we didn’t agree with it.”

It is noteworthy that during the promulgation of the verdict over Hazroyan’s case, upon hearing of life sentence the latter threw the bottle of “Jermuk” in the direction of the judge. Another case was initiated over the incident, as a result of which, lifer Hazroyan was twice convicted.

However, in a talk with us Artur Sakunts noted that the judge had made a number of mistakes over both of the cases in which he partook. Advocates from the NKR, who weren’t certified by the RA Chamber of Advocates, participated in the court trials. “I would submit a motion stating they weren’t entitled to participate in the court trials, but the judge would decline bringing up an excuse that the protection right of their clients was far more crucial.”

“I have submitted numerous motions regarding procedural errors in 2 court cases, where I participated as the representative of the victim’s legal successor, which weren’t accepted.   During the court trial the judge didn’t initiate procedures directed at the implementation of fair trial.”