Court Rejects Appeal by Manvel Paramazyan's Defenders, They Exit the Courtroom

The first-instance court has just rejected the motion for recusal directed towards Judge Armen Danielyan by the defenders of Manvel Paramazyan, the mayor of Kajaran.

It should be recalled that defenders Lusine Sahakyan and Yervand Varosyan had previously announced that if the judge rejected the recusal motion, they would not participate in the appeal proceedings. Following the rejection, they exited the courtroom.

They noted that the court president Tigran Sargsyan did not have the authority to assign the case to any judge, let alone Armen Danielyan. According to them, the law specifies that case assignments are made by a computer; however, the National Security Service had confiscated the computers.

Lusine Sahakyan stated that according to the law, even in the presence of an insurmountable force, the court president does not have the right to assign the case to any judge he wishes. "It is clearly stipulated there that the assignment is made in alphabetical order. If we look at it this way, for instance, it should have been assigned to Azaryan, not to Danielyan," she emphasized.

Recall that on July 9, Manvel Paramazyan was charged under Article 38-178, Part 3, Article 311, Part 4, and Article 154.2, Part 2 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Armenia. Manvel Paramazyan denies the charges, asserting that all of this is part of a politically motivated campaign against him.