The Court of Appeals Acquits Convicted Individual in March 1 Case

The Court of Appeals of Armenia has upheld the Prosecutor General's appeal, overturning the June 11, 2008 ruling of the Court of General Jurisdiction of Yerevan's Kentron and Nor Nork districts regarding Yovhannes Ghazaryan, recognizing his innocence on the grounds of lack of criminal composition.

This information was shared by Gor Abrahamyan, advisor to the Prosecutor General of Armenia, on his Facebook page.

According to the 2008 ruling, Ghazaryan was found guilty under part 1 of Article 316 of the Criminal Code of Armenia and sentenced to one year of imprisonment, which was not conditionally applied, establishing a probation period of two years. The court had determined that Ghazaryan had committed non-dangerous violence against police officers during the events that unfolded in the early morning of March 1, 2008, at Freedom Square, refusing to comply with police legal demands and threatening to use violence.

“The verdict was appealed by the defense to the Court of Appeals, which, however, dismissed the appeal due to the non-appearance of the defendants and their lawyers for the court hearing, citing the grounds for withdrawing the appeal, and left the original ruling of the General Jurisdiction Court unchanged,” Abrahamyan noted. “The Prosecutor General's Office justified in its appeal to the Court of Cassation and then the Court of Appeals that fundamental violations of procedural law occurred during the investigations, which disrupted the very essence of justice in the judicial acts adopted.”

Abrahamyan pointed out that this marks the third successful appeal presented to the Court of Cassation or the Court of Appeals by the Prosecutor General's Office concerning cases related to events during the presidential elections of 2008. Prior to this, acquittal decisions had been made based on the prosecutor's appeals in the cases of Musheg Saghatelyan and Svmbat Aivazyan. An acquittal decision was also issued in the case of Gagik Jhangiryan when no objection was presented by the prosecutor.