Davith Tonoyan Demands Public Trial: Statement

Davith Tonoyan's legal team has issued a statement announcing: "We inform you that the first court session scheduled for February 4, 2022, regarding the criminal case involving Davith Tonoyan and other individuals, did not take place and has been postponed indefinitely due to the illness of the participating defendants at liberty and the presiding judge.

At the same time, we declare that Davith Tonoyan continues to assert and demand an open and public trial, which is being held behind closed doors based on the unfounded decision of Judge Manvel Shahverdyan, attributed to a lack of understanding regarding state and military secrets. We firmly maintain that the materials in the criminal case do not contain information classified as state or military secrets marked 'highly classified'; rather, the materials to be examined primarily contain information classified as service secrets. Before making his decision, the judge did not take any measures to clarify with the relevant authorities whether there is indeed a legally protected secret in the criminal case, while most of these materials were initially proposed to be classified as service secrets by Davith Tonoyan himself.

We also inform you that our appeal against the decision to keep Davith Tonoyan in continuous detention has not yet been assigned to any judge in the Court of Appeals, and no date has been set for the hearing of the appeal. As soon as this information becomes available, we will inform you accordingly."