Today the appeal on the case Shant Harutyunyan and others was rejected. Ara Zaqaryan, the advocate of Shant Harutyunyan’s friend Gegham Khachatryan said that the decision of the Criminal Court of Appeal was “utterly predictable.” “I did not expect anything else from the Court of Appeals. I perceive this case as a political one. Our Judicial System is unable to implement Justice on political cases,” he said.
To our quewtsion about the fact that in the court of the first instance as well as in the Criminal Court of Appeals the defense side solicited to attach to the criminal case a video record with the RA President Serzh Sargsyan, where the President assessed the acts of Shant Harutyunyan and others, as well as to invite Serzh Sargsyan to the court for questioning, and whether the record and the President’s testimony would be of great importance the advocate answered “Of course there are important circumstances for the case. First, where the RA President obtained such information. May be he had learnt that from someone, that is he is aware of some information concerning the case. As for the Serzh Sargsyan’s statement, it is as such in my opinion and in the opinion of many other advocates; the President had allowed violation of the presumption of innocence. He also showed that we do not have an independent judicial system, and in this regard the study of the video record would have had an essential importance for the case,” the advocate said.
