Significant Details Emerge in Kanaker-Tuy Case

The newspaper "Zhoghovurd" reports that significant details have come to light regarding the murder case of Kanaker-Tuy. Specifically, Judge Manvel Shahverdyan of the Yerevan Court of General Jurisdiction has released from detention for the second time the defendant Hovhannes Simonyan, who is accused of murdering three individuals with firearms obtained and possessed illegally, imposing "house arrest" as a preventive measure.

Initially, on March 9, 2023, Judge Manvel Shahverdyan decided to replace the detention of Hovhannes Simonyan with house arrest. At that time, based on an appeal from the victim's side and the prosecutor, the RA Court of Appeals annulled Shahverdyan’s decision. The appellate court concluded that the nature of Simonyan's relationships with the other defendants in the criminal proceedings provided reasonable grounds to assume a significant likelihood of illegal influence on them, thus establishing that the obligation to prohibit contact with the private participants of the proceedings under house arrest is impractical, given that Simonyan resides with another defendant in this case.

In fact, the decision by Judge Manvel Shahverdyan to apply house arrest for such serious crimes and in such a context is quite peculiar, considering that courts, including Judge Shahverdyan himself, do not resort to house arrest for less serious offenses. More concerning is that, not only did he apply it once, but also six months after the appellate court annulled that decision, Judge Shahverdyan again applied house arrest for Hovhannes Simonyan, blatantly ignoring the appellate court's ruling and its rationale. Moreover, the defense attorneys of Simonyan had filed a cassation appeal against the appellate court's ruling, which the Supreme Court had rejected for consideration.

We sought to understand what might be the obvious interest of Judge Manvel Shahverdyan in persistently releasing Hovhannes Simonyan from detention, and it became known to us that Hovhannes Manukyan is the son-in-law of Tigran Mukuchyan, the long-time chairman of the Central Electoral Commission of the RA, who has also previously served as the head of the Civil and Administrative Court of Appeals of the RA, thus having significant connections within the judicial system.

We believe that the President of the RA Supreme Judicial Council, Karen Andreasyan, who speaks daily about vetting in the judiciary, along with other competent authorities, should take a greater interest in such cases to uncover any hidden interests behind the judge's questionable decisions. It should be noted that, according to ArmLur.am, in this instance, the victim's side and the prosecutor have also filed appeals against this decision, and now it is the turn of the Court of Appeals.