On 29 January, the trial in the case of Judge Arusyak Aleksanyan, her assistant Tamara Petrosyan and Lawyer Erik Aleksanyan was continued in the Anti-Corruption Court. Judge Vahe Dolmazyan chaired the session.
On 17 October, 2022, the Supreme Judicial Council approved the petitions of the General Prosecutor’s Office regarding the initiation of criminal prosecution against Judge Arusyak Aleksanyan and provided consent to deprivation of liberty. Within the framework of the same case, the lawyer Erik Aleksanyan was also charged under Article 46-441 of the Criminal Code, that is, he assisted an official in abusing office or official powers or the influence caused by them or exceeding the powers. In the framework of this case, Arusyak Aleksanyan’s assistant Tamara Petrosyan was also charged.
According to the accusation, the judge is accused of making an obviously unjust court act and abusing official powers. She satisfied the petition of Erik Aleksanyan, the defense attorney of Sergey Grigoryan, who is known as “Faz”, by changing the measure of restrain and releasing him from custody for a bail of 2.5 million drams. According to the prosecution, Sergey Grigoryan is a friend of Arusyak Aleksanyan’s brother, Rustam Aleksanyan.
The defendants do not accept the charges against them.
According to Iravaban.net, during today’s court session, witness Naira Petrosyan, who worked in the office of the “Kentron” seat of the Yerevan Court of General Jurisdiction, was questioned. It should be noted that she is the 2nd witness questioned in the case. The first one was Maria Petrosyan, an employee of the same office.
It was Naira Petrosyan who worked at the “Ajapnyak 1” residence on that day, she was the one who dealt with mediations.
According to the prosecution, Arusyak Aleksanyan, during her days on duty, urged Erik Aleksanyan to submit several petitions to the court at the same time about replacing the detention with another preventive measure during her duty days. In this way, by creating an artificial workload for the judges, ensuring the increase of the probability of assigning one of the petitions to her. The lawyer learned from the judge about the duty schedule of the judges, on 12 and 17 September he submitted 2 petitions to the court, expecting that one of them would be assigned to Arusyak Aleksanyan. One of them was examined by Judge Armen Shiroyan and rejected. On 17 September, the lawyer presented a new petition to the court through lawyer Zhirayr Gharagyozyan. The Acting Chairman of the Court, Gagik Poghosyan, assigned it to Arusyak Aleksayan, but on the same day, Poghosyan re-assigned it to Armen Shiroyan, taking into account the fact that the other motions regarding Sergey Grigoryan were examined by Shiroyan.
Naira Petosryan stated that she was at the residence at 5:00 p.m. on that day, she dealt with the petitions brought by the investigators, the other employee of the residence, Sona Danielyan, was overloaded on that day. They called Maria Petrosyan, discussed work issues, during which the interlocutor informed them that the last 2 petitions sent should be sent back for re-assigning, because there is a problem with one of them.
“Gagik Poghosyan was the Chairman of the court at that time, and he instructed that the wrongly assigned petitions be taken back from the judge’s staff. Since I didn’t receive the petitions, I didn’t process them and I didn’t know which judge it was addressed to, I forwarded it all to Sona. I said that there is the instruction of the Chairman of the Court and Maria Petrosyan. I cannot say for sure whether the petitions were brought back to the office or not,” the witness said.
According to her, after 18:00, there were 2 re-assigned petitions left, which had not yet been handed over to the staff. Since Sona Danielyan had an overloaded day, Naira Petrosyan offered to deal with these petitions. She waited for the signatures by e-mail, received the signature sheets, recorded them in the register and handed them to the judges.
The defense side continues to claim that Arusyak Aleksanyan was not aware of the re-assignment, therefore he did not know that one of them should be examined by another judge.
Public Prosecutor Armen Gevorgyan and the defense side asked questions to the witness, then the prosecutor interceded for the publication of the 3 pre-trial statements given by her.
The investigator in the case of Sergey Grigoryan, who is known as “Faz” and is considered a criminal authority, was questioned today as well.
Details in the video.
