On 1 June, the preliminary hearings in the case of Judge Arusyak Aleksanyan, her assistant Tamara Petrosyan and Lawyer Erik Aleksanyan were continued in the Anti-Corruption Court.

According to Iravaban.net, participants of the trial referred to the work of the Anti-Corruption Chamber of the Court of Cassation. Defender Andranik Manukyan announced that until now the mentioned chamber has accepted 7 complaints, and all 7 were submitted by the Prosecutor General’s Office. According to him, no complaint from the defense side, including his complaint in this case, was accepted.

Regarding the issue, Arusyak Aleksanyan made the following statement: “One of the judges of the Anti-Corruption Chamber of the Court of Cassation, Sergey Chichoyan, is one of the main characters in one of my internal viewing episodes. He called me and expressed his indignation and anger because I had not arrested a person in one of the well-known cases. Of course, this internal viewing episode is not provided to me by the NSS. If Sergey Chichoyan were a little bit honest, instead of rejecting our complaints in an intensive way, he would have at least resign.”

Public Prosecutor Armen Gevorgyan also referred to Arusyak Aleksanyan’s this statement during the court session. He mentioned that the fact that the results of the internal inspection were not provided to the defendant, the firm conviction that such data are present in them, is not acceptable for him.

“Nevertheless, they want to record and officially announce that the preliminary investigation in the criminal proceedings continues, Ms Arusyak Aleksanyan was given an opportunity in the pre-trial proceedings, the investigator tried to get the answers to the questions important for the proceedings, but Mrs. Aleksanyan refused to testify. Now, accepting Ms. Aleksanyan’s statements made in today’s session, I will make sure that the investigator visits her once again and I will ask her to give detailed and thorough testimony not only about that call, but also about all the calls that happened in her work practice. If they find that there are features of an apparent crime, then they are not deprived of the legal opportunity to report the crime,” the prosecutor said.

It should be noted that Sergey Chichoyan is a member of the Supreme Judicial Council as well.

Yevgenya Hambardzumyan