The Supreme Judicial Council imposed a sanction on Judge Davit Harutyunyan during the court hearing and removed him from the courtroom.
Davit Harutyunyan said in the interview with journalists on 26 June.
“I suggested that the session be postponed for at least one day, so that the lawyers would come and have the opportunity to participate, and I would discuss and finish the issue of detention or house arrest in my proceedings, of course it was not postponed.
We were in the question stage, after the previous session, when after lawyer Yerem Sargsyan’s questions, first Karen Andreasyan announced a break for 15 minutes, then suddenly the recording device of the computer broke down. We demanded to provide the flash drive record, even so far it has not been provided, , although the recordings have been restored so far. I said to provide at least another lawyer who does not participate in the strike, as at least technically it was difficult to carry out the protection of interests personally,” Harutyunyan said.
According to the judge, the SJC rejected that petition as well. During the question stage, when Davit Harutyunyan asked questions, the representative of the Ministry of Justice did not answer a lot of questions, noting that they are essentially not related.
“To note, the questions specifically related to the financial relations of the key participants of this proceeding, the Chairman of the Supreme Judicial Council and Grigor Minasyan, which apparently were connected with the legality of the proceeding. In particular, I should mention that it is confirmed, argued and even the representatives of the ministry cannot deny that there is a financial connection between them. In other words, they are persons subject to challenge, which implies that they cannot continue to perform judicial functions in the same proceeding,” Davit Harutyunyan detailed.
The judge noted that even if he was not given the opportunity to answer the questions, the representative of the ministry, on the direction of Karen Andreasyan, indicated that he refused to answer the questions, and we had a lot of questions. Acceptance of documents was refused as well.
“At the end, he said that they are passing to questions by the SJC members, in the order set by him.
I made a note to allow the lawyers to be present to continue my questions, to formulate, even as they would like, the questions they would prefer or think that those questions might be asked, but then the left to the deliberation room to discuss the issue of of applying a judicial sanction against me, saying that I interfere with the process. According to his impression, I was abusing my judicial powers, perhaps I exercised them dishonestly. Under these circumstances, they left for the deliberation room.
I should mention that even before that, the members of the Supreme Judicial Council, especially the judges, were not allowed to ask me any questions, even if they presented any suggestions, they were removed, as they did in previous court sessions, noting that they were not independent, it maybe a slip of the tongue, but he said that he takes out their questions and suggestions and states that he makes the decisions and if anyone does not agree with them, then they can express their opinion,” he said.
After that the members of the SJC went to the deliberation room and came back to note that a court sanction was applied, removal from the courtroom. Davit Harutyunyan mentioned that he was informed that if he accepts the illegality of his action and repents, “he said that probably he will review the court sanction.”
Davit Harutyunyan mentioned that SJC provided no reasoning for any decision.
“Andreasyan asked if I respect him or something like that, I said that I have respect for the Institute of the SJC, he said: you do not respect me, ore suchlike words, and they again left for the deliberation room. I supposed to review. I said, let me continue, of course they didn’t listen, because Andreasyan got up and left, the council left after him, then the bailiffs came and mentioned that there was an order from the Chairman of the SJC to remove me from the courtroom,” the judge said. He asked to be allowed to listen to the record of the court sessions, to see if that decision was made or whether the court sanction was reviewed after his statement or not.
The process lasted for 5-10 minutes, I went out into the corridor, then I wanted to go back, the doors were already closed, my belongings, technical equipment were in the courtroom. As it turned out, the court hearing continues,” Davit Harutyunyan said, noting that Karen Andreasyan does not even hide his motives.
Lawyer Yerem Sargsyan interrupted the interview with journalists. After that, they decided to enter the building of the SJC to go to the courtroom.
“Since our client was removed illegally and was not allowed to ask questions, now they are continuing without him and without his representatives, which are shameful and gross violations. Now Mikayel Shkhimyan and I will try to get inside, to see whether they will give us the opportunity to participate. There are doubts that they may not even allow us to go upstairs,” Yerem Sargsyan said.
The bailiffs said right at the entrance that the session was over, they couldn’t say for sure whether the session was over or postponed.
“If the session continues tomorrow, we will naturally participate. We had informed in advance, before scheduling the session, that a strike was announced on the 26th of the month on the initiative of the Chamber of Advocates and the solidarity of the majority of lawyers in RA, we asked not to schedule it on this day. Moreover, they scheduled a session every next day, sometimes, with one day breaks, we all actually had pre-scheduled court sessions, but no one went to any sessions, we came here so that there would be no problem because of us, but today, in fact, our requests to postpone the court session were not respected in any way. Mr. Harutyunyan was forcibly deprived of the right to ask questions to the representatives of the SJC, after which, when he demanded to be provided with an opportunity to exercise his rights, they went to the deliberation room and returned. They imposed a sanction on removal from the proceedings, without specifying for how many hours, etc. This probably lasted for 10 minutes, now we wanted to enter, they said that the court session is over and they do not give us any information,” Yerem Sargsyan said.
According to the lawyer, they tried in every possible way to get rid of the presence of Davit Harutyunyan and his representatives, and when they removed him from the courtroom, they should have to allow one of his representatives to be present and participate in the session.
“We have information that the session has, in fact, been completely completed and 3 July has been set as the day of publication. There is a very important consideration here, that after Davit Harutyunyan’s exit, they probably finished it in 10 minutes, what does this mean that they did everything to prevent even the lawyers from going upstairs. There is a very important coincidence related to the 3rd day of the month, that day is Mr. Harutyunyan’s birthday, and if in other circumstances it could be said that this is a coincidence, but in the case of such behavior of the SJC, it can be said that they want to publish that day on purpose, maybe they want to present a gift to Mr. Harutyunyan,” Yerem Sargsyan said.
Note: A person that is suspected or accused of an alleged crime is considered innocent until his/her guilt is proved by a court judgment that has come into legal effect pursuant to the procedure determined by RA Criminal Procedure Code.
