Sanasyan's Defense Requests Suspension of Case and Appeal to the Constitutional Court

On October 28, the first court hearing regarding David Sanasyan, the former director of the State Oversight Service (SOS), and others took place. It should be noted that besides David Sanasyan, the defendants include Samvel Adyan, head of the procurement monitoring department of the SOS, Gevorg Khachatryan, a medical equipment specialist at SOS, and Taron Avetisyan, the actual head of 'Zorashen' LLC.

The case is being examined by Judge David Balayan. During the meeting, Judge Balayan presented the circumstances that could serve as grounds for recusal. As Judge Balayan pointed out, defense attorney Grant Ananyan had engaged only within the context of the days when the courtroom doors were blocked, taking on his protection as a private individual, although he had not authorized him to take on that protection, despite not being his client. No criminal case has been initiated regarding this occasion, and Ananyan is contesting this in court.

A similar basis has emerged in another case, where the chief prosecutor has not submitted a recusal request concerning Ananyan, and the examination of that case is still ongoing.

Another point of concern is that the Minister of Health, Arsen Torosyan, is a witness in the case. The issue is that the former head of the Fanarjian Oncology Center was his cousin. However, according to the judge, this does not constitute a hindrance or grounds for bias, as Torosyan has the status of 'other participant' in the case.

During the hearing, Sanasyan's defense attorney, A. Sardarjan, submitted a request to separate his client's case from the other three defendants' cases. This request was denied. T. Avetisyan's defense attorney noted that his client has requested for the case to be examined in an expedited manner, as it establishes more favorable conditions regarding the punishment.

Sanasyan's defense attorney, I. Petrosyan, stated that the preliminary investigation of his client's case could not have been conducted by the NSS investigative department because the status and procedure for regulation contradict the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia, hence it was conducted with all procedural violations and must be suspended, and the court should appeal to the Constitutional Court.

Judge D. Balayan requested the request to be submitted in writing.

The court hearing was scheduled for November 27 at 13:30.