Examination of Appeal on the Case of Victim of Violence Witnesses on Hayk Kareyan’s Case Completed
13:17, January 21, 2015 | News, Own news | Right to be free from torture and inhuman or degrading treatment, Right to Fair Trial, Rights of Soldiers/Recruits | Armed Forces, Hayk Kaleyan
On January 21, 2015, the RA Criminal Court of Appeal, presided by judge A. Petrosyan, resumed examination of the appeal of Artur Sakunts, representative of Merujan Kaleyan. Note that the RA Criminal Court of Appeal reviewed the judicial act by the RA Syunik Marz (region) First Instance Court of general jurisdiction of September 22, 2014 for its legitimacy.
Presiding judge A. Petrosyan stated that the investigator responsible for the preliminary investigation of the case was assigned another job in NKR Martakert city and in his application to the court, stated that he was unable to attend the court hearing due to his heavy workload and asked the Court to examine the appeal in his absence.
Sakunts, representative of the applicant, stated that the presence of the agency responsible for the proceedings at the court hearing was necessary to ensure a thorough, impartial and comprehensive investigation of the case.
Upon considering the motion, the Court found that there were still no grounds for the investigator’s presence at the hearing and decided to continue it in his absence.
Afterwards, the Court announced the judicial act of the RA Syunik Marz First Instance Court of general jurisdiction and the essence of the appeal. Then A. Sakunts presented the grounds and rationale of the appeal, along with a number of arguments on inadequate investigation during the preliminary investigation. At the court hearing, A. Sakunts also submitted an addendum to the appeal drafted upon familiarization with the preliminary investigation materials.
The presiding judge A. Petrosyan sought to find out whether the representative of the applicant in his appeal challenged the adequate assessment of evidence or performance of investigative actions. In response to the judge, A. Sakunts mentioned about the biased attitude while assessing the evidence obtained within the case, since on the one hand, the aggrieved party Armen Bozoyan claimed suffering violence, and on the other, the persons responsible from the state agencies denied exerting any violence against Armen Bozoyan, and the investigator took the decision on discontinuing the criminal proceedings based on the testimonies of the latter. In the meantime, A. Sakunts also stated that the investigator failed to carry out some investigative actions, e.g. face-to-face questioning to resolve the contradictions between the testimonies.
The court asked about filing motions for presenting new evidence and hence considered the examination of the appeal to be completed. The court will announce its ruling at 09:55 am, January 22, 2015.