The Court of Appeal upheld the detention as Ara Budaghyan’s precautionary measure. His lawyer Hayk Alumyan, in the interview with Aravot.am and “168 Hours”, said that the court decision will be appealed at the European Court of Human Rights. In Hayk Alumyan’s words, a person can be detained, if there is a risk that he can hide from the investigation during the investigation process, obstruct the investigation or commit a new crime. “No such grounds were presented here. The investigator and the prosecutor merely refer to the fact that he is accused in a dire crime. But bringing charges still do not mean to be guilty, and any person who is accused does not mean that he should be detained. Unfortunately, everything in our country is turned upside-down”.
The lawyer added that during the court session a reference was made to the verdict by Jirayr Sefilyan’s case against Armenia, which the European Court of Human Rights has considered a violation. “Unfortunately, our courts do not even learn on their mistakes. This is the worst option. Smart people learn on the mistakes of others, not so smart people learn on their own mistakes, and our courts do not learn on own their own mistakes, which is very bad. Our judicial system has not made a move forwards with respect to the cases on detention, it is still standing in the same place where the so-called reforms have begun”.
To the question of Aravot.am of whether the factor of Surik Khachatryan’s case would possibly have affected the decision-making, he replied that he does not know. “I think that usually our courts if the National Security Service is submitting a motion to arrest a person seem to become obscure. They both forget the European conventions, the national laws, and all the seminars that were conducted with them, and the human factor ceases to function. I have not yet seen that motions of the National Security Service are to arrest a person are rejected. Sometimes, it creates an impression that our courts seem to be the NSS subdivisions, simply they are operating in the court building, under the veil of the court.”
Ami CHICHAKYAN
Read also
