Possible Cancellation of Convictions in Two Cases Related to March 1 Events

The Prosecutor General of Armenia, Artur Davtyan, has filed cassation appeals against the convictions of Davit Matevosyan and Khachik Gasparyan regarding the verdicts issued in 2008. This information has been reported by the press service of the Prosecutor General's Office.

In June 2008, the Yerevan Courts of General Jurisdiction found D. Matevosyan and K. Gasparyan guilty under Article 316, Part 1 of the Criminal Code of Armenia. The court established that on March 1, 2008, around 7 a.m., at Liberty Square, the two individuals, failing to comply with the lawful demands of police officers, committed acts of violence, which, while not endangering life or health, were considered breaches associated with the performance of their official duties.

According to the aforementioned verdicts, D. Matevosyan was sentenced to three years, while K. Gasparyan was sentenced to two years in prison. Under Article 70 of the Criminal Code, the sentence imposed on the latter was conditionally not applied, thus establishing a probation period of one year and six months.

The sentences have been appealed to the Court of Cassation of Armenia, which, in September 2008, rejected the appeals and upheld the decisions of the General Jurisdiction Court. A further cassation appeal was submitted regarding D. Matevosyan's case, but in January 2009, the Court of Cassation returned the appeal due to a lack of grounds for accepting it.

The Prosecutor General’s Office has also examined these two cases, finding that during the proceedings, significant procedural violations occurred, fundamentally undermining the essence of justice. Specifically, in both instances, the right to a fair hearing ensured by Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights and Article 17 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Armenia was violated. The prosecuting body and the courts considered the actions of D. Matevosyan and K. Gasparyan—pushing and pulling the police officers—as violence, despite these actions not being categorized as such in line with the precedent set by the Armenian Court of Cassation.

In the case of K. Gasparyan, there was no evidence in the criminal case regarding the alleged act of hitting, and there were no references to this in the legal decisions.

It turned out that the courts violated the rights of the defendants to defense and fair trial as enshrined in the Constitution of Armenia and the European Convention on Human Rights. Notably, during the trial, without serious justification, the defense’s requests to summon several eyewitnesses of the events and to question them were rejected.

In both cases, the basis for the guilty verdicts was exclusively on the improperly verified testimonies of police officers during the proceedings. The European Court, in the case of 'Musheg Saghatelyan v. the Republic of Armenia,' citing decisions based on other complaints not related to Armenia, expressed a legal position stating that '... unconditionally affirming the version presented by the police regarding the events, failing to adequately address any of the applicant's arguments, and refusing to examine the defense witnesses without properly considering the relevance of their statements, led to the restriction of the rights of the defense, which contradicts the guarantees of a fair trial.'

Based on the above, Prosecutor General Artur Davtyan has appealed to the Supreme Court of Armenia, demanding the annulment and modification of the judicial acts regarding Davit Matevosyan and Khachik Gasparyan.