Ara Hakobyan, Director of “Kecharis Hotel” Limited Liability Company, filed a lawsuit against the Cadastre Committee, demanding to declare the state registration of 10 December, 2021 for the real estate located at 14 Aivazovsky Street invalid and oblige to register the ownership right of the plaintiff to the same address.
The case was assigned to Judge Yelena Arakelyan.
It should be noted that Iravaban.net has published an investigation about 70 auctions announced for the area at 14 Aivazovsky Street, the winners in which are related to Mihran Poghosyan.
During the court session on 29 May, the “Arndane” Company, which is involved in the case as a third party, presented a challenge petition to the presiding judge.
According to the representative of the company, Nerses Aghababyan, the plaintiff, Ara Hakobyan, is related to the former head of the Compulsory Enforcement Office, Mihran Poghosyan, who in turn is the cousin of judge Ani Harutyunyan. According to the lawyer, Ani Harutyunyan and presiding judge Yelena Arakelyan are friends.
“We received information that the presiding judge is in friendly relations with Ani Harutyunyan. You have also worked together for a long time. We do not have specific information about the nature of your relationship. We think that you are the only reliable source in this regard,” Nerses Aghababyan said to the judge, adding that a criminal case has also been initiated in connection with the auction.
The party notes that the connection between Ara Hakobyan and Mihran Poghosyan is confirmed by the data published in the mass media and the facts contained in them. The judge asked the lawyer to clarify the position regarding the alleged connection between her and Ani Harutyunyan.
“We have received news that there are friendly relations between you and Ani Harutyunyan. The Iravaban.net website also has a publication about it. It will be difficult for me to say where we got this information from, they are talks that reach us in different ways,” Nerses Aghababyan said, adding that he does not consider the fact of working in the same court sufficient for her recusal.
Yelena Arakelyan tried to clarify whether the source of the information of the mass media and the side is the same or not. The lawyer stated that he does not know, because he did not ask Iravaban.net about the source.
Ludvig Davtyan, the plaintiff’s representative, noted that mass media can publish many materials, but their conformity to reality is doubtful. He mentioned that there is a criminal case, but it does not confirm any factual circumstances that Mihran Poghosyan has anything to do with this auction. “If the petition is granted, the court will indirectly confirm the relationship between Ara Hakobyan and Mihran Poghosyan, which I think is wrong.”
According to Ludvig Davtyan, only the circumstance of friendly relations between judges cannot be the basis for recusal.
Karo Asatryan, the representative of the bankruptcy administrator Armen Stamboltsyan, joined the presented petition, because the publications may arouse suspicion in the eyes of an impartial observer. The lawyer also mentioned that neither Ara Hakobyan nor Mihran Poghosyan submitted refutation claims regarding media publications.
Ludvig Davtyan added that the connection between Mihran Poghosyan and Ara Hakobyan is not obvious to him. “Even if a person doesn’t deny, doesn’t answer, doesn’t write anything, it doesn’t mean that whatever he wrote is true.”
To Ludvig Davtyan’s this argument, Nerses Aghababyan responded that recently, Mihran Poghosyan spread a denial on the Internet about the episode of drug discovery in boxes of bananas imported by “Mrgeni” LLC. However, Mr. Poghosyan has not denied the news regarding the auction at 14 Aivazovsky address or the connection with Ara Hakobyan.
The presiding judge announced that the decision on the petition will be published on 31 May.
