Today, June 17, the preliminary hearing continued at the Anti-Corruption Criminal Court in the “Isakov lands” case against Armenia’s third president Serzh Sargsyan, presided over by Judge Aram Grigoryan.
According to Iravaban.net, at the beginning of the session, the issue of terminating criminal prosecution on the grounds of the statute of limitations was discussed.
Serzh Sargsyan’s defense attorney Amram Makinyan made the following statement regarding this: “If we’re talking about the statute of limitations, I can declare on behalf of Mr. President that we object to the criminal prosecution being terminated on that basis. We have weighed both the court’s positions and our positions, and we believe that we refuse to use this opportunity, because Mr. President did not commit the act he is accused of. We will achieve that this is established by the court’s judicial act, and this fact will remain in Armenia’s history.”
Amram Makinyan presented another motion, noting that since, in addition to this criminal case, Sargsyan is also being tried in another criminal case under the jurisdiction of presiding judge Aram Grigoryan, they request that the two criminal proceedings be merged.
“Considering the possibilities for effective investigation and generally completing the two cases concerning Mr. President within reasonable timeframes, we ask that the cases be merged into one proceeding,” Makinyan said.
Public prosecutor Hayk Hovhannisyan objected to the motion, stating that other defendants besides Serzh Sargsyan are involved in the other criminal case: “Considering the number of episodes and witnesses, and that the factual circumstances of this case and that case are not interconnected, I believe that merging the cases could create obstacles.”
After hearing the parties’ positions, the court decided to grant the presented motion and merge the two criminal cases into one proceeding. The court found that merging the cases could not negatively affect the fair examination of the proceedings.
Recall that after more than four years of litigation, the court had acquitted Armenia’s third president, rejecting the Prosecutor’s Office charges that during his presidency, Serzh Sargsyan organized the embezzlement of nearly half a billion drams from the state budget. The Prosecutor General’s Office appealed Serzh Sargsyan’s acquittal decision to the anti-corruption appellate court. The Prosecutor’s Office claimed that in 2013, in a tender for a program to provide farmers with accessible diesel fuel, former president Serzh Sargsyan’s close businessman Barsegh Beglaryan’s “Flash” company had won, which, unlike the other two companies that submitted applications, had offered the highest price. The court, however, decided that the transaction made years ago was legal. The Anti-Corruption Appellate Court satisfied the Prosecutor’s Office appeal.
