On 11 June, the trial in the case of Judge Arusyak Aleksanyan, her assistant Tamara Petrosyan and Lawyer Erik Aleksanyan was continued in the Anti-Corruption Criminal Court. Judge Vahe Dolmazyan chaired the session.
On 17 October, 2022, the Supreme Judicial Council approved the petitions of the General Prosecutor’s Office regarding the initiation of criminal prosecution against Judge Arusyak Aleksanyan and provided consent to deprivation of liberty. Within the framework of the same case, the lawyer Erik Aleksanyan was also charged under Article 46-441 of the Criminal Code, that is, he assisted an official in abusing office or official powers or the influence caused by them or exceeding the powers. In the framework of this case, Arusyak Aleksanyan’s assistant Tamara Petrosyan was also charged.
According to the accusation, the judge is accused of making an obviously unjust Court act and abusing official powers. She satisfied the petition of Erik Aleksanyan, the defense attorney of Sergey Grigoryan, who is known as “Faz”, by changing the measure of restrain and releasing him from custody for a bail of 2.5 million drams. According to the prosecution, Sergey Grigoryan is a friend of Arusyak Aleksanyan’s brother, Rustam Aleksanyan.
The defendants do not accept the charges against them.
According to Iravaban.net, Arusyak Aleksanyan’s defenders Yerem Sargsyan and Ara Ghazaryan were present at the session.
The judge said that the issue of dismissing the frequently absent defense attorneys from the proceedings should be discussed. He emphasized that according to the Criminal Procedure Code, if the defense attorney is absent from the session twice and the absence is disrespectful, they can be removed from the proceedings.
Lawyer Ara Ghazaryan said that he realizes that he has been absent a lot. “The reason is not that I am not interested in the case, the reason is that it is a team work, I am a lawyer involved in this case mainly in the European Court, I got involved here on the condition that I sometimes come to Court hearings so that I can get information and present some claims, which I have to present in the main case in which I am competent. If the Court says that according to the law there are reasons to remove me from the proceedings, I cannot say that I object, I cannot say that I am in favor.”
The Court considered it necessary to read the days of all sessions held in the case, the names of the defenders who participated and did not participate in the sessions, and also noted which defender was warned more often about not appearing at the session. Lawyer Yerem Sargsyan said that his absences were mainly due to the fact that he was busy with meetings and was not in the country.
“I want to refer to the legal norm mentioned by the Court. I think this norm is provided to ensure the normal course of the Court session. In other words, if the accused has several defenders and according to the order agreed between the defenders, it happens that at least one of the defenders is present at the Court session and the Court session is not postponed, there is no problem related to the interest of justice. Let’s imagine that the Court says: if the defense attorney doesn’t appear twice, I dismiss him, for example, does justice win or suffer here? It definitely hurts, but if the Court removes all defenders, because all of them have been absent at least twice. New defenders will come, they will want time for the case,” he said.
The Presiding Judge said that what was said does not apply to Erik Aleksanyan’s defenders Gayane Papoyan and Anna Mantashyan.
“I would like to ask not to remove my defense attorneys from the proceedings, because a situation may arise that perhaps another defense attorney may want to make a speech at the stage of Court arguments, but we will have to return to another stage so that the involvement issue is resolved. The Court should not be guided by the formal legal aspect of the issue, but should be guided by the semantic aspect,” he said.
Judge Vahe Dolmazyan said that raising this issue also causes some vigilance.
The Court decided not to remove the absent defense attorneys from the proceedings.
At the end, the accused Arusyak Aleksanyan and Erik Aleksanyan stated that they will not be questioned in Court. Accused Tamara Petrosyan said that she should discuss this issue with her lawyer, after which she will be able to express her position.
Details in the video.
Hasmik Sargsyan
