“It is obvious that this case has political overtones, nothing else,” Nina Karapetyants, the counselor of the Helsinki Association, said during a conversation with www.aravot.am with regard to the case of Arman Veziryan, an observer of the association.
Ms. Karapetyants went into detail then, “I wouldn’t have said there were political overtones, if our motion that the case was related to the election hadn’t been there. And after that motion, charges were made to silence Arman. After the National Assembly election, the Arman Veziryan case is the only case that has remained. Thus, all complaints and reports to the police and the public prosecutor’s office have been suspended on certain grounds.”
N. Karapetyants also told about a series of violations committed during the investigation of the case. She stated: “An investigation was launched when we filed a motion to make charges against our opposing party according to Article 149, which provides for punishment for actions that aim at preventing monitoring mission during the election campaign. The law stipulates that it can be any action. Or that they prevented and impeded handing out leaflets, it is obvious that they impeded the election campaign. Or that they were convincing Arman for a long time to take his motion back, and not only Arman, but also the counselor, the head of our organization. And after refusing, Arman became a defendant. It is the basis, on which charges were brought against Arman for his action. The case is an absurd, to begin with, since there is a defendant, but it is not clear who is the aggrieved party, and there is no complaint.”
Read also
Given the above-mentioned, the counselor states that Attorney General Aghvan Vardanyan’s “words are not valid anymore” and explains: “I have put forward extracts from the reports of the Deputy Attorney General’s and the Attorney General’s reports, in which the Attorney General’s speech clearly mentions that if there is no aggrieved party and complaint in the case, they cannot make charges against a person.”
For the moment, the Arman Veziryan case is in court, the time for defendants to testify has come. N. Karapetyants informed us that “the presumption of innocence is violated at every turn” in this case and added: “We don’t pin hopes on internal justice that a fair decision will be made. We will file a petition in the European Court and will win the case there. Now we are compelled to file a petition in the court, since the European Court requires that.”
Tatev HARUTYUNYAN
