On 25 June, the trial in the case of the former Chairman of the Urban Development Committee, Vahagn Vermishyan, continued in the Anti-Corruption Court of Appeals. Presiding Judge Karen Amiryan, Judges Armen Hovhannisyan and Mesrop Makyan.
According to Iravaban.net, Vahagn Vermishyan’s defense attorneys filed an appeal against 2 of the 7 charges against Vermishyan.
Vermishyan’s defense attorney noted that the Court of First Instance considered the factual circumstances underlying the accusations against Vahagn Vermishyan and the other defendants mentioned in the indictment to be confirmed.
Testimonies of 5 witnesses examined during the trial proved that Vermishyan’s advisor Natalya Chernikova was employed under “privileged” conditions, which was manifested only in the form of a free schedule of attending the work place.
According to him, this does not mean that Vahagn Vermishyan misused his official powers due to the circumstances of her employment and work at the Urban Development Committee, and Chernikova was unjustly paid for work she did not perform.
In particular, the presented evidence proved that Vermishyan offered Chernikova employment in the Urban Development Committee due to work needs, as the latter was a good specialist, she studied at Vermishyan’s class, and that is why Vermishyan was well aware of Natalya Chernikova’s professional abilities.
“As a result of the incomplete and non-multifaceted examination of both the preliminary investigation and the trial, a number of factual data evidences at the disposal of the prosecuting body were not examined, the examination of which will reveal the fact that Natalya Chernikova performed a number of large-scale works arising from her position. The computers confiscated from the offices of Chernikova and Vahagn Vermishyan during the searches were examined incompletely, only those parts that contained the names of construction projects with episodes already known to the investigation,” the defense attorney said.
According to him, there were many other folders in the specified computers, which contained the work done by Natalya Chernikova during her work in the Urban Development Committee, which were “deliberately” not examined.
Vahagn Vermishyan’s defender, Alexander Kochubaev, stated the following. “The first issue that I would like to raise at the court, is the disruption of justice. Justice is considered a miscarriage when one of the competitors in the boxing ring goes up with his hands tied, and this is the very case where we, as the defense, appeared with our hands tied.
All our motions were rejected, moreover, some of them, which are key to denying the accusation and building a defense, were not even considered by the court.”
According to Kochubaev, from the beginning of the court investigation, he submitted a motion to recognize the evidence as inadmissible, which was not discussed by the court, and it was not addressed in the verdict. He mentioned that in the same way he submitted a petition for termination of one of the episodes, which was not discussed in terms of content.
The defender pointed out that back in July 2021, he petitioned the court to provide all the documents that are the basis of the OIMs (operational intelligence measures), he received an answer that they are in the National Security Agency, he applied to the National Security Agency, and received an answer that they cannot be provided because that contain state-service secrets.
“We cannot assess, for example, what factual information did operative officer, Lieutenant Colonel. Arshaluysyan receive, confirming that Vahagn Vermishyan receives bribes, abuses authority, the court says this factual information is in the National Security Service, the National Security Service says: we do not provide it to you, and the court says that we have not demanded it from the NSS. In all cases, to the extent that these documents are provided, they also provide a basis for recording that violations also occurred during the implementation of operative-investigative measures,” he said.
Referring to Natalya Chernikova’s schedule for visiting work, the defender said that her schedule was irregular, it was from 11 am to 1 am, 2 am. The position of adviser did not have a passport and there was no clear indication that Natlya Chernikova should attend work from 9 to 6.
According to the defender, Chernikova was engaged in mega-projects in the Urban Development Committee.
“In all respects, the work that Natalya Chernikova received, if state tenders were announced for those projects, I assure: the state had spent a billion drams for those projects, and here in addition to the fact that the state interest was not violated, the problem was solved as well. In addition, it is not the case that Chernikova did private work in the Urban Development Committee, detached from reality,” Kochubaev added.
Alexander Kochubaev also referred to the circumstances of a number of buildings designed by Narek Sargsyan, the former Chairman of the Urban Development Committee who served before Vahagn Vermishyan.
“If Vahagn Vermishyan participated in illegal entrepreneurship by implementing projects, then Mr. Vermishyan is not so equal before the law, and if the state’s approach is that a person, occupying the position of the Chairman of the Committee, can carry out architectural work and it will not fit into the domain of illegal entrepreneurship, then the approach should be equal.
We have 2 chairmen of the Committee, one of the chairmen designed the MFA building, the Northern Avenue building, many other buildings being the chairperson of the Committee, here if we accept the charges that the Davtashen or Urartu project was designed by Vahagn Vermishyan, this will not be considered in the domain of illegal entrepreneurship,” Kochubaev said.
The session was postponed, the appeal with the other 5 episodes will be presented at the next court session.
To remind, Vahagn Vermishyan pleads not guilty to all aspects of the accusations against him and demands an acquittal.
Details in the videos.
