One Cannot Keep a Person in Custody in Such a Situation: Grigoryan's Defender

The next court session in the case of Manvel Grigoryan and Nazik Amiryan has commenced at the Central-Nork Marash sitting of the Yerevan Court of General Jurisdiction. Only Nazik Amiryan was present at the session, while Manvel Grigoryan did not attend due to health issues, as in previous hearings.

During this session, the court is expected to address a request made in previous hearings regarding obtaining permission to lease the immovable and movable properties under custody, with the income intended to be directed to controlled accounts.

Prior to the examination of the request, the defense once again submitted a motion to change the measure of restraint. “It seems that the court does not want to examine this case within a reasonable timeframe. The court has in its possession medical documents indicating that custody hinders treatment, which it is ignoring. Does the court not want Manvel Grigoryan to be able to come and attend the sessions? The issue at hand is to execute justice; for 4, 5, 6 months, the judge has done everything to avoid examining the case. The case has been in court since April 2019, with more than ten sessions held, which Manvel Grigoryan could not attend for health reasons, and he only participated twice in the presence of doctors, but it was postponed due to his deteriorating condition. One cannot keep a person in custody in such a situation; all the documents over these months confirm that there has been negative dynamics recorded during custody, he has issues with independent movement, and it is impossible to carry out treatment effectively. Such treatment is illegal torture. We request the court to replace custody with bail, setting the bail amount up to 5 million drams,” said defender Levon Baghdasaryan.

The prosecution objected to the request, stating that it does not differ from the previous submissions, with identical arguments, and the motion is subject to rejection. In response to the objection, defender Arsen Mkrtchyan said, “When we say he has started to not walk, his voice has changed, and his blood sugar has risen, is that not a change? Should we present a death certificate for it to be considered a change?”

The session was adjourned, and the decision on the request will be announced at 14:00. It is worth noting that in the previous session, the defenders had again filed a request to replace the measure of restraint with bail, but the court had rejected it.