Hacker Georg Avanesov case was heard at the trial court of the Arabkir and Kanaker-Zeytun administrative districts presided by Judge Armen Khachatryan today.
“This case is unprecedented also in the whole world. Perhaps computer crimes are committed, but in the courts of the Republic of Armenia this is first such case,” prosecutor Hovsep Sargsyan didn’t conceal his attitude.
Before listening to the prosecutor’s speech at the stage of pleadings, the court employed amnesty in regard to a few charges brought against G. Avanesov and stopped the prosecution against him.
The prosecutor objected to using amnesty concerning Article 253, Section 2 of the Criminal Code – computer sabotage – moreover, he filed a motion to convict Georgi Avanesov to 5-year imprisonment.
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The prosecutor said that Avanesov had performed a deed, which many countries dealt with. He claimed that Avanesov had created a program called Trojan, by which he broke into protected websites through viruses. In particular, he entered websites of 59 million users, damaged 194 websites, spread 341 special viruses. The websites of the State Institute of International Relations, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Russian Federation, the Kaspersky Lab for Special Projects and www.mkrf.ru website of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation found victims to the case were mentioned, in particular. During the preliminary investigation, the victims informed that they didn’t know Avanesov and they hadn’t given him the right to enter.
The prosecutor said that as a result of Avanesov’s activities, the ministries’ business reputation, the privacy of the website visitors’ data had been damaged, which had had serious consequences. Saying serious consequences, he meant the following, “Fortunately, no airplane fell from the sky, no human lives were lost.” So, the prosecutor considered the potential crime as a serious consequence.
The prosecutor didn’t rule out possible lawsuits from abroad filed by the victims, he said that the Kingdom of the Netherlands was interested in this case and the investigator who had conducted the preliminary investigation and the prosecutor had been sent to the Netherlands on a business trip to find out the merits of the case.
Georgi Avanesov born in 1987 was rather calm; a few of his friends were present at the session.
The prosecutor said that Avanesov should have used his mental abilities not against, but for the sake of people, “At the end of the day, if one is an expert in computers, one should use it not to harm, but help people.”
Avanesov was a DJ in the past and worked at clubs. The data registered on Facebook under the name of Zhora Terror corresponded to his data.
Gegham Hakobyan, a member of the Bar of the Republic of Armenia and Avanesov’s counselor, requested 24 hours to prepare the defense speech.
Ruzan MINASYAN
