The criminal case of Judge Arusyak Aleksanyan of the Court of First Instance of General Jurisdiction of Yerevan City is among the series of court hearings covered by Iravaban.net.

During the preliminary hearings of this case on June 1, 2023, reference was made to the work of the Anti-Corruption Chamber of the Court of Cassation. During the session, the defense stated that to date, the chamber has accepted 7 appeals for proceedings, all 7 brought by the Prosecutor General’s Office. It was also noted that no appeal, including the one brought by the defense attorney Andranik Manukyan in this case, has been accepted for proceedings.

Regarding this issue, the defendant Arusyak Aleksanyan made the following statement in court: “One of the judges of the Anti-Corruption Chamber of the Court of Cassation, Sergey Chichoyan, is one of the main characters in one of my internal observation episodes. He called me and expressed his indignation and anger because I didn’t detain someone in a high-profile case. Of course, the National Security Service didn’t provide me with that internal observation episode. If Sergey Chichoyan had been a bit honest, instead of intensively rejecting our appeals, he would at least recuse himself.”

It should be noted that Sergey Chichoyan has held the position of judge in the judicial panel for examining corruption crimes of the Anti-Corruption Chamber of the Court of Cassation since July 1, 2022, and also served as a member of the Supreme Judicial Council from 2018 to 2023.

Iravaban.net submitted an inquiry to the Prosecutor General’s Office to obtain answers to the following questions:

• Has Arusyak Aleksanyan’s statement been investigated or not?
• Has Sergey Chichoyan given testimony about this call to the preliminary investigation body or not?
• What circumstances have been clarified, and additionally, has Arusyak Aleksanyan been questioned about this call?

In response to the inquiry, it was reported that the relevant section of the audio recording of the court session held on June 1, 2023, has been sent to the investigative body conducting the proceedings to carry out necessary procedural and evidentiary actions regarding the statements made by the defendant Arusyak Aleksanyan during the court session. No other information was provided by the Prosecutor’s Office.

“The other information requested in the inquiry cannot be provided based on Article 8, Part 1, Clause 3 of the RA Law on Freedom of Information, as the anticipated information constitutes non-publishable data of criminal proceedings,” the response message states.

Mariam Shahnazaryan