First Instance Court Had No Evidential Basis for Charges, Defense Claims

The judge of the first instance court, Artush Gabrielyan, who made the decision to detain Gagik Khachatryan, has committed blatant violations, for which Khachatryan's defense team has lodged a complaint with the Minister of Justice and the Disciplinary Commission of the General Assembly of Judges to hold the judge accountable.

"When the pre-trial body submits a request to the court to detain an individual, the court must make a reasonable assumption about whether that individual is connected to the charges laid against them or not; it is a matter of substantiated suspicion. The first instance court did not have any factual basis regarding the charges at its disposal, and the court could not imagine whether such a crime was present or not. It did not have the materials to overcome the threshold of substantiated suspicion," said Sarkisyan, noting that the court simply mechanically approved the request of the prosecuting body.

Yerem Sarkisyan emphasized that his client does not accept the charges brought against him. It is noteworthy that today, chaired by Judge Rubik Mkhtaryan, the Court of Appeals of the Republic of Armenia examined the appeal lodged by defenders against the decision to detain the former head of the State Revenue Committee, Gagik Khachatryan, who is charged with committing particularly large-scale embezzlement.

We previously reported that the National Security Service arrested Gagik Khachatryan and his nephew, former SRC official Karen Khachatryan, on August 27. Three days later, the former officials were detained. Khachatryan is charged under the second part of Article 308 and the first point of the third part of Article 179 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Armenia, which involve abuse of official position and embezzlement of particularly large sums of money. The charges against him and his nephew relate to alleged crimes committed during Gagik Khachatryan's term as Minister of Finance and head of the SRC.