Armine Karapetyan, assistant of the Judge of Court of First Instance of Erebuni and Nubarashen Communities of Yerevan Vladimir Grigoryan, who is charged for demanding 1500 USD bribe, announced at the court that the charge levied against her by the investigative body is false and fabricated.
Notably, according to the indictment under the pretext of bribing the judge in order to induce him to appoint non-custodial punishment to the defendant Gagik Yesayan (whose case is considered at the proceedings of the same court), Armine Karapetyan fraudulently demanded 1500 USD from Alina Hovhannisyan, the mother of the accused. However, Alina Hovhannisyan refused to give any money because of the lack of the necessary sum. Avetis Apiyan, the prosecutor of the above mentioned case, had filed a motion to the court to appoint a fine amounting to 500.000 AMD as a punishment to the defendant Gagik Yesayan. However, the court, under the presiding judge Vladimir Grigoryan, had decided to sentence Yesayan to 2 years of imprisonment. After publishing the verdict Alina Hovhannisyan shouted “I didn’t give the bribe that is why you imprisoned my son.”
Today, Armine Karapetyan claimed that she did not know Alina Hovhannisyan and dealt with her only in the terms of the criminal case by Judge Vladimir Grigoryan’s recommendations.
Armine Karapetyan also told that during the investigation of Alina Hovhannisyan’s son, some people demanded bribe to resolve her son’s problems at the court. “Alina told me that her friend is working at the police system and they again demanded 5000 USD. I warned her not to give money as she could be easily deceived then told the Judge about it. The judge ordered me to warn her not to deal with anybody”. Then she spoke about the incident in Judge Vladimir Grigoryan’s office on the day of the verdict.” When the judge entered his office, he asked me to prepare a letter, then prosecutor Avetis Apiyan rushed into the room and told to change the verdict as KGB has a record on this case. The judge got angry at him and told him that he was not afraid of any record and ordered the bailiffs take out the prosecutor from his office.
Armine Karapetyan added that Judge Vladimir Grigoryan always carried out the punishment of mandatory imprisonment in cases where Article 178 (swindling) of the RA Criminal Code, applied. According to the judge’s former assistant all prosecutors submitted motions on imprisonment except Avetis Apiyan.
The defendant mentioned that she had dozens of phone calls with Avetis Apiyan on the case of Alina Hovhannisyan’s son; moreover some of them were made at night. In addition, the defendant believes, that prosecutor Apiyan, as well as some officers of prosecution system have tense relations with Judge Grigoryan and motioned to send the tap record of Avetis Apiyan and Alina Hovhannisyan’s active discussions to the prosecution for opening a new case. At the end she asked to take an acquittal verdict.
