On July 4, the trial of Judge Arusyak Aleksanyan, her assistant Tamara Petrosyan, and advocate Erik Aleksanyan continued at the Anti-Corruption Criminal Court. The session is presided over by Judge Vahe Dolmazyan.
According to Iravaban.net, defendant Arusyak Aleksanyan delivered her closing statement at this session. In her speech, Aleksanyan noted that although the defense team had presented justifications and arguments throughout the proceedings that the charges have no relation to her activities as a judge, she nevertheless addressed all episodes in her closing statement.
She insisted that the entire legal process against her has taken place in violation of justice: “I have said more than once that the launch of unleashed illegalities was given by a false, fabricated report compiled by an NSS operative that does not correspond to reality, according to which the National Security Service of Armenia allegedly received operative data that I, holding the position of judge, periodically demand and receive large amounts – from 2 to 5 million drams – as bribes from persons not yet identified by investigation in various court cases under my jurisdiction. I understand that you are already tired of this topic, bored, we are all tired, but everything starts from here.”
She characterizes the entire legal process against her as illegal, noting that the most important feature of this proceeding is that all parties involve professional lawyers: “Do you know what is insulting, with all due respect to all persons with alleged criminal inclinations, I do not underestimate anyone’s capabilities and intellectual abilities, but I am neither an illegal border crosser for you, nor a drug dealer, nor suspected of robbery.
In this case, we are talking about a judge, so you want to try a judge, do you really think you will succeed with this basis? After all, the defendants in the case are professional lawyers – couldn’t you be a little more careful, attentive, and meticulous?”
In her speech, Arusyak Aleksanyan also addressed the episode where her brother, Rustam Aleksanyan, maintained close relationships with various persons bearing criminal subculture, including Sergey Grigoryan, known by the nickname “Faz,” for whose release from detention Rustam Aleksanyan had allegedly approached his sister Arusyak Aleksanyan.
“This is another manifestation of the incompetence of the investigative department and prosecutor’s office, the investigation has failed again, they have again resorted to the vivid imagination of the operative block. First, show any data obtained during the proceedings that my brother Rustam Aleksanyan maintains close relationships with various persons bearing criminal subculture, especially with Sergey Grigoryan known by the nickname ‘Faz.’ Or show one piece of data that Rustam Aleksanyan approached me with a request to release Sergey Grigoryan. No such data exists.”
Arusyak Aleksanyan also addressed the wiretaps published by the public prosecutor in court involving her and her relatives, claiming that the presiding judge should not have allowed personal conversations of a female judge to be made public in an open court session.
“So many serious resources have been spent, or rather wasted, that in the end the prosecutor’s office presents to the court with a very serious facial expression what Arusyak Aleksanyan ‘hunted’ with whom. The important thing turned out to be that we hunted rabbit. Or you have consumed so much state resource to necessarily present the multilayered nature of Arusyak Aleksanyan’s vocabulary, see that Arusyak Aleksanyan addressed someone with the term ‘beast,’ and the other responded ‘may I die for you,’ called another one a sheep, another an animal, and by saying animal and sheep, caused serious consequences.”
Regarding the episode of making an obviously unjust judicial act, Aleksanyan stated: “To assess the justification of my decision, it is sufficient to have followed the events that followed the decision I made. And what did Sergey Grigoryan do after being released by me – did he flee? No. Did he obstruct the proceedings? No. Did he commit a new crime? Again, no. So what did he do – he demonstrated law-abiding behavior, which further proves the justification of my decision.
…With all responsibility, I declare that my decision to release Sergey Grigoryan on bail is not only not an obviously unjust judicial act, but is the most just judicial act in the world.”
In her speech, Arusyak Aleksanyan announced that no witness, either during the preliminary investigation or trial phase, said any word that could testify to her committing a criminally prosecutable act: “That is, no one testified against me, not even Gagik Poghosyan, the main actor of this scenario.”
“There is such talk, they say Dolmazyan has kept you detained for so long, he won’t acquit you in the end, it’s clear that he will ultimately issue a guilty verdict. Honorable court, please disappoint those who express such conviction, be guided exclusively by law, implement real justice, and real justice is that all defendants in this case should be acquitted,” Arusyak Aleksanyan concluded her speech.
At this session, the administrative supervision and prohibition from leaving applied to Arusyak Aleksanyan as preventive measures were lifted, while the bail preventive measure will continue to operate.
The public prosecutor also expressed a position regarding the closing statement, once again insisting that the evidence obtained as a result of the conducted Special Investigative Measures is admissible, and according to him, it is not possible to conceal the legality and legitimacy of the competent body’s actions with abstract declarations.
Details are in the videos.
