Arrest Warrant Issued in Armenia for Attila Chichak and Huseyin Yildirim Since August

An arrest warrant has been issued in Armenia for Attila Chichak and Huseyin Yildirim, both of Kurdish descent, since August. The Ministry of Justice has released a clarification stating that the Siunik Region Court of General Jurisdiction issued a guilty verdict against the named individuals on January 20, 2022. Attila Chichak was sentenced to seven years in prison along with the confiscation of property worth $5,700, while Huseyin Yildirim received a seven-year sentence and the confiscation of property worth 3 million Iranian rials.

Based on the appeal against the verdict, the Court of Cassation of Armenia partially accepted the appeal on February 23, 2022, annulled the verdict concerning the sentence, and changed the penalty to a final imprisonment of five years, while leaving the confiscation of property unchanged. Additionally, under relevant articles of the criminal code, the sentence was conditionally not applied, and a probation period of three years was set.

Both defendants had their chosen measure of restraint, pre-trial detention, lifted by the court, and they were released from the courtroom. It should be noted that a cassation appeal against the judicial act was filed by both the Prosecutor General's Office of Armenia and the defendants' lawyers, but the appeals were rejected.

Consequently, the corresponding judicial act has come into force, and on July 28, 2022, an implementation order and a copy of the judicial act were sent to the Probation Service, taking into account that in Armenia, if a sentence is not applied conditionally, the control over the probation period is carried out by the Justice Ministry's probation service.

Naturally, carrying out the supervision involves actions by the probation officer to locate the person, notify them, explain their rights and obligations, register them, and develop a supervision plan, among other responsibilities.

The Siunik regional body of the probation service, after obtaining the judicial act, attempted to determine the whereabouts of the aforementioned individuals for the purpose of fulfilling these responsibilities. However, after failing to locate them, on August 8, 2022, a motion was submitted to the court to issue an arrest warrant for Attila Chichak and Huseyin Yildirim. The Siunik Regional Court of General Jurisdiction granted the motion on August 22, 2022, finding that the individuals were allegedly evading supervision, and all means of locating them had been exhausted. An arrest warrant was issued for them, with the execution of the decision entrusted to the Goris Department of the Siunik Regional Directorate of the Police.

The Ministry of Justice has stated that it has no information regarding the whereabouts of the individuals in question who are currently wanted.