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On January 25, 2017 the General Jurisdiction Court of Arabkir and Kanaker-Zeytun administrative districts, presided by A. Matevosyan, resumed examination of the complaint of A. Shamiryan and his lawyers Arayik Zalyan, lawyer at HCA Vanadzor, and Tigran Safaryan, lawyer involved by the Organization, against the decision of G. Begoyan, investigator at the RA Special Investigation Service on discontinuing the criminal case on illegal sale of cell phones at ‘Hrazdan’ penitentiary facilities by convict Armen Shamiryan under the patronage of the administration of the penitentiary of December 23, 2015.

The court hearing was attended by Armen Shamiryan, his representative Arayik Zalyan and G. Begoyan, investigator for high-profile cases at the RA Special Investigation Service.

Along with the submitted application, Arayik Zalyan filed an annex to the application by which he substantiated that the investigation was accompanied by numerous shortcomings and omissions. In particular, he drew the attention of the Court to the fact that while the administration of the penitentiary facilities did not deny the fact that A. Shamiryan brought cell phones to the penitentiary bypassing the control, the investigation did not establish that the cell phones were transferred through emissions or any other means. Given this, it is obvious that the safety staff of the penitentiary facilities failed in their job and this failure must receive a legal assessment.

The investigating agency took no measures to hold face-to-face questioning of Armen Shamiryan’s family members and other persons involved in the case (involved in bringing cell phones and other items to the penitentiary facilities) and to detect the cell phones.

Referring to the data in the report of the Public Observer Group Monitoring Penitentiary Facilities and Bodies of the RA MoJ, A. Zalyan noted that the said offense is characteristic for the RA penitentiary system. As a rule, the penitentiary facilities and the Penitentiary Department do not carry out proper investigation to solve such cases which gives grounds to argue that a large number of staff members in the system are involved in such offense. And in this case, the investigative body gave a non-impartial assessment by considering trustworthy only the testimonies of the penitentiary facilities officers. The investigating body took no other investigative actions.

After hearing the plaintiff party, the Court decided to postpone the hearing by scheduling it for February 20, 2017, at 12:30 pm.

See also: Special Investigation Service favors corruption crime at ‘Hrazdan’ Penitentiary Facilities