Prosecutor Davtyan Appeals to Cancel Verdicts in 3 More March 1 Cases

The Prosecutor General of Armenia, Artur Davtyan, has filed cassation appeals against the convicting verdicts related to Hovhannes Ghazaryan, Davit Arakelyan, and Arman Shahinyan, issued in 2008, as reported by the press service of the prosecution.

The individuals were found guilty under the first part of Article 316 of the Criminal Code of Armenia according to the rulings of the courts of the Central and Norq-Marlas communities in Yerevan, issued in 2008. The court established that during the events that unfolded in Freedom Square on March 1, 2008, these individuals failed to comply with the lawful demands of police officers at various times and locations, utilizing methods such as pushing, tugging, or striking, thereby exerting non-dangerous violence against them in connection with their official duties.

According to the verdicts, Hovhannes Ghazaryan was sentenced to one year, Davit Arakelyan to one year and six months of imprisonment; however, the previously assigned penalties were conditionally not applied and a two-year probation period was established. Arman Shahinyan received a real sentence of one year and six months of imprisonment.

In all three cases, the verdicts were contested by the defense in the Criminal Appeal Court of Armenia, which discontinued the proceedings regarding the cases of Ghazaryan and Arakelyan due to the absence of the defendants and their lawyers at the court meeting, on the grounds of withdrawal from the appeal. In contrast, the appeal concerning Shahinyan was rejected, and the verdict of the court of general jurisdiction was left unchanged.

A review conducted by the Prosecutor General's office revealed that during the proceedings of these cases, fundamental violations of procedural law occurred, undermining the essence of justice. Specifically, it was established that during the pre-trial and trial processes concerning these individuals, violations of Articles 3 and 18 of the Criminal Code of Armenia took place, and the elements of the crime provided for in Article 316 of the Criminal Code are absent from their actions.

The proceedings conducted by the authorities and the courts regarded the individuals' actions of pushing or tugging at police officers as violence, even though there has been precedent established by the Supreme Court of Armenia that these actions cannot be categorized as such. The accusations and judicial decisions did not describe forms of non-dangerous violence or threats to life or health by these individuals. In all three criminal cases, there were no recognized victims.

The study also established that the courts infringed upon the constitutional and conventional rights of the defendants to a fair trial and protection. In particular, during the trials, requests by the defense to invite and interrogate witnesses present at the police department during the arrests were rejected, and the accusations were based exclusively on inadequately verified testimonies from police officers or on contradictory statements from witnesses, which were deemed unreliable by the court, despite not being refuted by other evidence present in the case.

Meanwhile, the European Court has expressed its legal position regarding similar complaints not related to Armenia, asserting that unconditionally accepting the version presented by the police about events, failing to adequately address any of the applicant's arguments, and denying requests to interrogate defense witnesses without appropriately considering the relevance of their testimonies lead to limitations on the rights of the defense, contrary to the guarantees of a fair trial.

Furthermore, the study found that considering the absence of defendants in court hearings for two of these cases as grounds for withdrawing an appeal and thus terminating proceedings, as determined by the Armenian appellate court, contradicts the legal positions expressed by the Supreme Court of Armenia and is unfounded.

Based on the above, Prosecutor General Artur Davtyan has turned to the Supreme Court of Armenia, demanding the annulment and modification of the judicial acts concerning Hovhannes Ghazaryan, Davit Arakelyan, and Arman Shahinyan.