Gagik Khachaturyan's Legal Team Issues Statement

The former Minister of Finance of Armenia, Gagik Khachaturyan's legal team issued a statement today, informing that the review of the extension of Gagik Khachaturyan's detention is once again proceeding in violation of established legal procedures. Moreover, it is strikingly coincidental that the case is being reviewed by the same judge as before.

The legal team stated that during the proceedings regarding the application for detention as a measure of restraint, a motion for self-recusal was submitted to the judge handling the case, citing that the motion had been assigned to him in violation of the procedure set by the court president. Surprisingly, all motions regarding Gagik Khachaturyan, including those granting permission for searches in his residences, were also assigned to him.

“In response, the court stated that according to the accepted procedure, if a judge reviews a motion for a person's detention once, he will also review all subsequent motions related to that matter. However, it appears that different approaches are applied to different individuals in the same case. Specifically, the next motion for extending the period of detention for Gagik Khachaturyan has again been assigned to the same judge, whereas the situation is completely opposite in the case of Karen Khachaturyan,” said attorney Yerem Sargsyan.

He also noted that during the proceedings to extend the period of Karen Khachaturyan's detention, the court had granted the defense's motion, allowing him to be released on bail. Subsequently, the Court of Appeals overturned that decision, and Karen Khachaturyan was detained again. Immediately after, his attorney submitted a new motion to the court to recognize the application of bail, but this time the motion was assigned not to the same judge but to another judge of the general jurisdiction court in Yerevan's Central district.

In this context, attorney Yerem Sargsyan argued that such double standards only indicate that the motions regarding the detention, extension of detention periods, and bail of Gagik and Karen Khachaturyan are assigned to judges favorable to interested parties in this particular criminal case.

“In other words, if a judge consistently extends the periods of detention and denies bail motions, he continues to review subsequent motions. Conversely, if a judge grants a bail motion, he no longer reviews subsequent motions as he is not the preferred judge,” stated the attorney.

Yerem Sargsyan also added that according to point 2 of Appendix 1 of the decision No. BDC-23-О-49 dated July 9, 2018, which sets forth the criteria and procedures for the balanced distribution of cases among judges, the distribution of cases is to occur evenly among judges with relevant specializations without regard to the order of registration.

Thus, from this point in the aforementioned decision and its content, it is evident that the president of the general jurisdiction court in Yerevan had no authority to assign the motion submitted for judicial oversight of a pre-trial criminal proceeding to a specific judge of his preference at his own discretion. Therefore, it is also evident that during the examination of the cases of Gagik and Karen Khachaturyan, the procedures for distributing cases among judges were not followed, nor were the requirements of the aforementioned decision adhered to. Instead, the court president, based on his subjective desire, without any legal basis or authority, had assigned the examination of the cases of Gagik and Karen Khachaturyan to his preferred judges.

The defensive team states that the fact that all motions regarding Gagik Khachaturyan are assigned to the same judge raises doubts about the court's independence and impartiality. Therefore, it turns out that the cases regarding Gagik Khachaturyan have not been examined and are being examined by a court established on a legal basis.