Today’s court hearing on the appeals of Ruben Baloyan, the advocate of the aggrieved party and the prosecutor Arthur Sargsyan in Vardan Petrosyan’s case was postponed․
The case was to be tried in cassation order. Before the hearing Henrik Ter-Adamyan, the presiding judge asked the journalists to shoot a video only during the first 20 minutes, though the session lasted no longer than 20 minutes.
Vardan Petrosyan’s advocates Nikolai Baghdasaryan and Samvel Jaghinyan filed a motion.
They mentioned that, the advocates Gerard Cholakyan and Marie Dose were provided the translation of the First-Instance Court verdict late. In addition, they did not have the appeal claim. The advocates cited the 16 October, 2012 decision of the Constitutional Court. According to the decision, the time limit of the appeal starts from the moment of receipt of the decision, and not from the moment of its publicizing. They also presented the precedent decision of the Court of Appeal which coincided with the current situation.
Nikolai Baghdasaryan said that on March 2, he received the translated version of the decision of the first-instance court and sent it to Mary Dose, as soon as possible, “Let’s consider that the advocate received the translation on March 2. Thus it means that the time limit of the appeal is not yet expired,” said the defender.
Thus they filed a motion requesting to postpone the judicial sitting to provide the translated documents and the court verdict so that they are able to appeal the judgment of the First Instance Court Nikolai Baghdasaryan announced.
The two parties did not object. The Court granted the motion of the defenders. The judicial sitting was postponed and was appointed on April 21.
Notably, after the court session Vardan Petrosyan stretched his hands to the policeman to put the handcuffs, but the latter did not do it and escorted the defendant without the handcuffs.
