On 4 March, the court hearing in the case of the former Chairman of the Urban Planning Committee, Vahagn Vermishyan, was held in the Anti-Corruption Court of Appeal. Presiding Judge  Karen Amiryan and Judges Armen Hovhannisyan and Mesrop Makyan.

The defendant Vahagn Vermishyan and the public prosecutor were not present.

According to Iravaban.net, today the court published the decision of the submitted motion to change Vermishyan’s measure of restraint

Attorney Kochubaev informed the staff that he was informed a few days before the session that the Court of Cassation did not accept the complaint of the prosecution regarding Gevorg Arushanyan, according to which the first instance applied house arrest while examining a case under the previous version of the Criminal Procedure Code.

The Court of Appeal upheld the decision, and the Court of Cassation did not accept the appeal against the decision. “Especially taking into account the position of the Constitutional Court that the decisions to refuse to accept the proceedings of the Court of Cassation should have precedential value. I think that this issue is indirectly closed by not accepting the Cassation proceedings, and the argument was that the motion should be considered as a procedural action and should be done according to the current regulations, because the motion was initiated as a procedural action under the new Criminal Procedure Code of 2022, I find that the applicable law is the edition of 2022”.

The court decided to partially satisfy the petition submitted regarding the change of detention as a measure of restraint applied to the defendant Vahagn Vermishyan. The current measure was replaced by house arrest for a period of 3 months. A bail in the amount of AMD 25 million, as well as a ban on leaving the country.

Relatives of the defendant accepted the court decision with applause..

After leaving the meeting hall, Iravaban.net spoke with attorney Alexander Kochubaev. He mentioned that Vermishyan will be released today, and the bail will be paid within three days. “Mr. Vermishyan will be under house arrest at the moment, but that is also a partial victory. We have been talking about the need for this decision for 4 years.”

Kochubaev enthusiastically noted that he is grateful to this judiciary for being independent and impartial. “I am sure that this decision was not achieved easily and it was made under very difficult conditions and battles for the independence of the judge.”

He also added that they achieved Vermishyan’s freedom during these 4 years.

Details in the video.