Court of Criminal Appeals noted: “Hovhannes Ghazaryan is unlikely to influence the police officers who testified against him”
18:36, March 4, 2017 | News, Own news | Right to liberty and security | Sasna Tsrer
As we informed before, ‘Founding Parliament’ supporter Hovhannes Ghazaryan charged under Article 225 of the RA Criminal Code was released on February 13, 2017 by the ruling of the RA Court of Criminal Appeals.
Referring to the grounds of the investigating agency and the first instance court on continual extension of the detention period, the Court of Appeals stressed in its ruling that even the “well-founded suspicions” of Hovhannes Ghazaryan’s links with the action charged against him at the early stages of the investigation might not serve basis for extending the detention at the following stages and added that the first instance court’s conclusions on the risks of evading investigation, interfering with the investigation or committing an action prohibited by law did not follow from the case materials, which was mandatory for such rulings.
The Court of Appeals also paid attention to the fact that the first instance court did not explain particularly which witnesses and how Hovhannes Ghazaryan could influence if he was released, the more so that most of the witnesses testifying against him were police officers and Hovhannes Ghazaryan was almost unlikely to influence them.
As for the reasoning of the investigative body and the first instance court on the fact that the expert examination results have not been received yet, the Court of Appeals does not consider it sufficient grounds to keep him in custody.
The Court also referred to the low degree of dangerousness of the action charged against Hovhannes Ghazaryan and considering the fact that he had no previous convictions and a number of other circumstances, qualified the first instance court’s ruling as illegal and ill-founded.
In its ruling, the Court of Appeals particularly emphasized that the court should have strong reasons to apply detention, the most drastic preventive measure, and in Hovhannes Ghazaryan’s case there were no such reasons.
The Court also referred to numerous RA Cassation Court’s precedent rulings and based on the above reasons granted the appeal of Hovhannes Ghazaryan’s defense counsel Ani Chatinyan, lawyer at HCA Vanadzor, and reversed the first instance court’s ruling of January 23, 2017 on extending the detention period for another 2 months by releasing Hovhannes Ghazaryan in the courtroom.
Thus, we note that Hovhannes Ghazaryan was kept in custody illegally for months; while his detention was based on a relevant court ruling, it was also illegal and ill-founded. The RA competent agencies violated Hovhannes Ghazaryan’s right to liberty and security of person by keeping him in custody for over 6 months without any sufficient grounds.