On January 18 the Court of General Jurisdiction of Kentron and Nork Marash Administrative District made a decision to decline the suit brought against the RA Prosecutor's Office by the Presidents of three human rights NGOs.  

Presidents of Civil Society Institute, Helsinki Committee of Armenia and Helsinki Citizens' Assembly -Vanadzor Office NGOs requested to institute a criminal case against the RA Deputy General Prosecutor and the Head of «Nubarashen» Penitentiary Institution based on the fact that from August 5 to September 1, 2010 Armenian citizen Sargis Poghosyan was illegally deprived of his liberty without court decision and merely based on the  written instruction of the Deputy General Prosecutor and was later released by the order emanated from the same person.  

In the beginning of the hearing judge Gagik Avetisyan presented the letter of Sargis Poghosyan. In the letter Mr. Poghosyan said he is ready to bear the responsibility in the Republic of Armenia if the criminal case against him was received from US. He also pointed out that he had not authorized anyone to protect his rights and that he denied cooperation offered by human rights NGOs several times.

President of the Helsinki Citizens' Assembly Vanadzor Office Artur Sakunts stated that the letter was written under the pressure and that they do not protect Sargis Poghosyan's rights but trying to prevent obviously fallacious actions of the public official by the intervention of the court. The President of Civil Society Institute NGO Arman Danielyan also expressed his concerns. He believes that when such illegal actions are not prevented, it creates a precedent for the Prosecutor's Office to act in the same way in future.

Defense lawyer of the plaintiff party Robert Revazyan directed several questions to the defendant party to clarify what were the articles and the laws used as a basis for detention of Sargis Poghosyan who was under the search of law-enforcement bodies of Virginia State, USA. Two representatives of the defendant party referred to the different international legal documents (European Convention on Human Rights, European Convention on Extradition and other bilateral international documents, Article 428 of the RA Criminal Procedure Code). However, they did not justify the relevance of these documents to the case.

Judge Gagik Avetisyan who previously worked for the RA Prosecutor's Office was frequently intervening the plaintiff party by saying «this question has been already answered». As a result that helped the defendant party to avoid answering the questions fully.

The court decided to decline the suit brought by the Presidents of three NGOs. The plaintiff party may appeal against the court decision within 10 days. The President of Civil Society Institute NGO Arman Danielyan said to journalists that they are planning to lodge the appeal against the judicial act. «The Prosecutor's Office is trying to prove that the oral agreements of the Prosecutor are more important than the Constitution», said Mr Danielyan and added that if they do not succeed in the Court of Appeal and Court of Cassation they will apply to the Constitutional Court.

«It is obvious that the judge is biased, he did not participate in the examination of the suit, did not ask questions to clarify the situation. It shows that the judge was biased from the beginning», said Artur Sakunts to the journalists.

When answering the question of www.hra.am whether the judge was impartial, defense lawyer of the plaintiff party Robert Revasyan said: "The impartiality is shown in the announced judicial act. If our suit, which is well grounded, was declined, we consider the judicial act as groundless"

Illegal actions of RA Deputy Prosecutor General and Head of the "Nubarashen" penitentiary institution were found out by the Group of Public Observers Conducting Public Monitoring of Penitentiary Institutions and Bodies of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Armenia. The members of the Group familiarized with the case of Sargis Poghosyan and found out that there is no court decision regarding the application of preliminary detention toward Sargis Poghosyan.

"The Constitution clearly defines functions of the Prosecutor. He/she is not entitled to refer to the Head of Penitentiary Institution with the request to deprive of liberty or release a person", commented Revasyan. "We have learned that the Court has the decision of the court of Virgina State regarding the detention. However, the Court did not give the copies. The judge only said that you can request the copy and acquaint with the document", said the defense lawyer and clarified that besides the decision on detention of the Court of Virginia the Prosecutor's Office had to have the decision of the Armenian Court on application of preliminary detention as a preventive measure.

«Defendant party presents the European Convention on Human Rights as a justification of the actions of the Prosecutor's Office. However, firstly the Convention should be ratified by USA and only after that the document could be applied. They asserted that the Convention could be applied without ratification. We asked them to quote any judicial act where there is a reference to the European Convention on Human Rights. However, they did not indicate a single act», said R. Revazyan.  

Mary Alexanyan

Source www.hra.am