Koryun Nahapetyan, a Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) MP, elected in no. 8 electoral district thinks that condemning the ANC activists to 2-6 years in prison is well-grounded. Moreover, he thinks that the ANC shouldn’t have interfered in the legal proceedings and made assessments, “Can any political party make a statement in this regard and say that they think it is a severe punishment? I am asking a question, on what grounds? Is it the legal body administering justice in the criminal case? Certainly, no. I would suggest that they not allow themselves illegal interference with bodies administering justice.”
In response to our observation that the Congress sees only political reasons for that, Koryun Nahapetyan said, “With regard to every criminal case, there may be forces, including representatives of certain political groups, which will have objections to how the criminal case has been dealt with. It may be both during the preliminary investigation and during the proceedings. This approach that for certain reasons, some people make legal issues political ones has been noticeable recently. Those tendencies are not always legitimate. In some cases, one can notice that politicizing criminal cases is in the tactical interests of those political forces, in this case, to stir up social protest. As for the case of the ANC activists, besides legal protection that the given person can appeal to the Supreme Court, they can appeal to the European Court of Human Rights, if they think their rights have been violated. One shouldn’t doubt the impartiality of the court system with regard to every case and say that justice is not administered in Armenia. I just don’t share such extreme assessments.”
During the clash between the ANC activists and the police officers, someone mentioned that they were pro-Levon. In response to our question whether the same verdict would have been brought in, if they hadn’t been pro-Levon, they had been members of the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA), Koryun Nahapetyan said that it didn’t matter what party the given person was a member of, “Regardless of whether he is a member of the RPA or any other party, the approach cannot be conditional on that. Justice is administered in accordance with the Constitution and laws, and if violence was used against police officers, he should be held accountable.” In response to our question whether he should be convicted to 6 years in prison, the MP said, “The type and severity of punishment is provided for by the Armenian
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legislation. While administering justice, deciding on punishment, the court takes into account certain circumstances – the level and nature of social danger of the deed, the criminal’s personal record… the final punishment is decided as a result of assessing those. I don’t want to doubt the justice administered by the court and the punishment decided by it. If they think that a severe punishment has been decided, they have a right to appeal.”
Hripsime JEBEJYAN
