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On March 17, 2016, the General Jurisdiction Court of Arabkir and Kanaker-Zeytun administrative districts of Yerevan, RA, presided by L. Avetisyan, resumed examination of the appeal by Artur Sakunts, representative of Gayane Arustamyan, against the RA SIS High-Profile Cases Investigator A. Tadevosyan’s decree of August 8, 2015 on not initiating criminal prosecution and discontinuing the criminal proceedings.

The court hearing was attended by the plaintiff’s representative A. Sakunts, Chairman of HCA Vanadzor, and A. Tadevosyan, Investigator for High-Profile Cases at RA Special Investigation Service. M. Sargsyan, Prosecutor at the RA Prosecutor General’s Office, did not attend the hearing; he had informed the court by phone that he was unable to attend the court hearing due to his heavy workload and requested the Court to resume the examination of the appeal in his absence.

A. Tadevosyan, responsible for the investigation, did not object to resuming the examination of the appeal in the absence of the prosecutor. Plaintiff’s representative A. Sakunts stated that officials usually failed to attend court hearings on the pretext of heavy workload, which he considered as degrading treatment towards the court and left the resolution of the issues to the discretion of the Court.

Having considered the issue of resuming the examination of the appeal in the absence of the prosecutor, the Court found it possible to hold the court hearing in his absence since at the previous court hearings, the Prosecutor had expressed his position and was duly notified of the date and time of the scheduled hearing.

After resuming the hearing, the Court asked whether the parties had any further evidence to submit to the court. Neither plaintiff’s representative, nor the investigator had any such evidence.

A. Sakunts insisted on the appeal and A. Tadevosyan, responsible for the investigation, objected to it noting that a full, impartial and comprehensive preliminary investigation had been carried out.

Having considered the examination of the appeal completed, the Court retired to the deliberation room to make a ruling.

By it ruling announced shortly after, the Court dismissed the appeal of G. Arustamyan’s representative A. Sakunts against the RA SIS High-Profile Cases Investigator A. Tadevosyan’s decree of August 8, 2015 on not initiating criminal prosecution and discontinuing the criminal proceedings.

The court’s ruling above will be appealed to the RA Court of Appeals.

See also: hcav.am