Human rights activist Artur Sakunts believes that the “A1+” reporter Marine Khachatryan should appeal the decision by the Special Investigation Service. Note that the SIS terminates the proceedings for the fourth time with an argument that the commander of the RA State Guard Regiment battalion Karen Hayrapetyan has not interfered with Marine Khachatryan’s professional activities and there is no corpus delicti in his deed. Artur Sakunts is not surprised at the SIS decision on such outcome of the case, because, according to him, “When it comes to the government representative or the law enforcement representative, the SIS is called not to bringing to liability or giving a legal assessment to the crime and send the materials to the court, but to cover-up and find such legal grounds that allegedly there was no crime. The solution is that the journalist should appeal to the court instances up to the court of Strasbourg.”
We inquired to know from Artur Sakunts about what is the reason for the General Prosecutor-SIS controversy. Note that the SIS has made a decision to terminate the proceedings of this Criminal case for the fourth time, and each time the Prosecutor had bridged the decision. “I do not know how to explain the conduct of the investigative bodies and the prosecutor. Obviously, there are some problems between these two institutions, it’s probably more a matter of personal ambitions”, said the human rights activist to Aravot.am. In his words, every year they include cases of violence against the human rights activists, including the journalists in their reports and send these reports to the international organizations dealing with human rights defense: the UN and the Council of Europe. “It is not that it is not reached to them. These are serious questions raised about these facts. Simply, there is a limit to abuse, Azerbaijan is in a disgraceful situation, at the moment, the attention is focused on there.”
Arpine SIMONYAN
