The Court of Criminal Appeal (presided by the Judge Sergey Chichoyan) continued the examination of the Advocate Arshavir Khalapyan case.
The accusation consists of two parts. The first one considers the point that he, being advocate, defended the citizens of Syunik Marz H. Margaryan and E. Karaptyan; he applied a report to the law machinery against them on the violation of rights-illegally buying grave places in the place called “Old tombs” which was the reason of initiating the criminal case. Then during the preliminary investigation (on March 2014) he met Samvel Sargsyan’s son, Sarmen Sargsyan at “Darist” Hotel in Kapan and demanded 10.000 $ for not applying new appeals against his father.
According to the second part, the conclusion of the accusation reads, on April 7, 2014 Arshavir Khalapyan as a citizen of Kapan City, R. Minasyan Street 17 building applied to Kapan Hall Town for receiving an information about the illegal building made by Ashot Kuyumjyan; and on April 18 as an advocate he again applied to Town Hall with the same report after which on May 1, 2014 he met A. Kuyumjyan at the same hotel and demanded 1500 $ for not applying further reports.
The Court of General Jurisdiction of Syunik Marz acquitted A. Khalapyan by the first point and accused him by the second point and was sent to 1 year imprisonment.
The Prosecutor appealed on this case to the Court of Appeal and demanded to annual the First Instance judgment partly and to accuse by the first point; final decision for the punishment to apply 2 years imprisonment. The Defense also appealed demanding to acquit the accused and to cease the case by the first and second points.
Arshavir Khalapyan announced at the court that he was innocent and demanded to acquit himself. He added that he conveyed the requests as a normal citizen and never used advocate letterhead.
The Defense Armine Fanyan said: “The Prosecutor also confirmed that our appeals are thorough and Arshavir Khalapyan did not send that requests as an advocate.”
Arshavir Khalapyan reported that Syunik Marz Prosecution is not interested whether he is innocent or not; the main aim is to isolate him and deprive of advocate license because he fights against the illegitimacy and is the real defense of the villagers’ rights.
The court went to the discussion room after listening two sides and 30 minutes later announced the decision by rejecting the appeals of both sides and leaving the same verdict of the Court of General Jurisdiction of Syunik Marz.
The decision of the Court of Appeal can be appealed to the Court of Cassation within one month.
