On 19 April, at the Anti-Corruption Civil Court, the representative of the defendant, attorney Mushegh Arakelyan, presented a motion on self recusal of the Presiding Judge in the case on the confiscation of assets and funds of allegedly illicit origin of the former Mayor of Yerevan, currently a member of the National Assembly Taron Margaryan and his family members. The final judgment was to be published on 23 April.

Lawyer Mushegh Arakelyan informed Iravaban.net , about the publication of the court act regarding the petition that it was rejected. “Honestly, we did not expect that it could be satisfied. I would like to record that the motion on challenge was the second one during the court sessions that have been going on for so long, related to the previous motion.

The behavior of the judge with the existing approaches in those petitions and court sessions suggests us, at least suggests to me, that this petition could not be satisfied. It was published on Tuesday, on the rejection basis, we are also thinking about applying to another instance, we shall see.”

Notably, it was mentioned in the motion that during one of the previous Court sessions, he informed that on 4 October, 2023, at 12:40, he had to participate in another Court session and asked to postpone this Court session, but the Court ignored the request: citing the greater importance of the Court hearings scheduled in this case.

He said that the Court session was scheduled for the same day at 10:00, he tried to find out about the possible duration of the Court session, but his question remained unanswered.

According to Arakelyan, immediately after the beginning of the Court session scheduled for 4 October, 2023 at 10:00 a.m., he had submitted a petition to hold the given Court session until 12:00 p.m. due to the fact that on the same day he was to participate in another Court case. However, without any clear reason, the Court rejected that petition as well.