Appeal Filed on Grounds of Fundamental Violation of Procedural Law in Life Imprisonment Case

The Prosecutor General's Office of Armenia has filed an appeal to annul the ruling concerning V. Gh., who was sentenced to life imprisonment for committing murder under aggravating circumstances, as reported by the office.

On August 5, 2009, the Court of General Jurisdiction of Ararat and Vayots Dzor declared V. Gh. guilty of the crime outlined in paragraph 7 and 15 of part 2 of Article 104 of the Armenian Criminal Code, sentencing him to life imprisonment. The court found that on March 27, 2003, V. Gh. initially attacked another person and then alone assaulted E. M. with multiple blows using his hands and feet, causing numerous injuries that resulted in E. M.'s immediate death. V. Gh. subsequently left the crime scene.

The ruling has been appealed several times in the Court of Cassation and the Court of Appeals, but for various reasons—including the expiration of appeal deadlines—it was left unchanged.

On July 26, 2011, a ruling by the Court of General Jurisdiction of Ararat and Vayots Dzor adjusted the sentencing based on the annulment of paragraph 15 of part 2 of Article 104 of the Armenian Criminal Code, which had been declared obsolete. As a result, the August 5, 2009 ruling was amended in accordance with the new regulations introduced by the law on amendments to the Armenian Criminal Code on May 23, 2011. The sentence, however, remained unchanged.

Reviewing the case, the Prosecutor General's Office discovered that the court had committed judicial errors, violating both material and procedural law, which affected the outcome of the case. The judicial ruling, produced as a result of substantial violations of procedural law, undermines the essence of justice.

Notably, in reviewing the ruling related to the decriminalization of the double criminality concept, the Court of General Jurisdiction of Ararat and Vayots Dzor had removed the aggravating circumstance of double criminality from V. Gh.'s charges, corresponding to the provision in Article 104, part 2, paragraph 15 of the Armenian Criminal Code, after which it erroneously reclassified his act under paragraph 7 of part 2 of the same article without sufficient justification.

Furthermore, V. Gh. could not be sentenced under paragraph 7 of part 2 of Article 104 of the Armenian Criminal Code, as the crime occurred on March 27, 2003, during the enforceability of the Criminal Code adopted in 1961. Under this code, murder committed by a group or an organized group was not considered an aggravating circumstance. It was only criminalized as an aggravating factor by the Criminal Code adopted in 2003.

The Constitutional Court of Armenia, in decision SDO-1431 on October 23, 2018, ruled that point 2 of part 1 of Article 379 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, which imposes a time limit on the right to appeal a judicial act improving a person’s legal status, is unconstitutional and invalid. Consequently, individuals eligible to file an appeal improving a person's legal situation are no longer restricted by the imposed time limits.

Based on these factual circumstances and the aforementioned Constitutional Court decision, the Deputy Prosecutor General of Armenia has filed an appeal demanding the annulment of the ruling of the first instance court concerning V. Gh. dated August 5, 2009.