NEWS.am. “Ruben Vardanyan’s statement is of significant legal importance. It becomes clear from his statement that Vardanyan is refusing his defense not because of poor performance or incompetence on the part of his lawyer, but essentially because he says there is no point in having a defense lawyer if he cannot communicate directly or exchange documents without restrictions and prior inspection,” said Siranush Sahakyan, the legal representative for Armenian prisoners of war and other captives at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), in an interview with NEWS.am, in which she commented on recent developments regarding Ruben Vardanyan’s refusal of the lawyer engaged by his family and the appointment of a public defender.
The lawyer described as a procedural absurdity the fact that Ruben Vardanyan still does not have an indictment and has not been able to familiarize himself with the 422-volume case materials, including audio and video files.
“The arguments he mentioned are already sufficient to consider the entire ‘trial’ against both Ruben Vardanyan and the other Armenians as unfair. Depriving the defendant of the basic ability to organize a defense makes the entire trial unjust, since without proper defense, it is impossible to exercise other rights. If you are uninformed and not familiar with the materials, you cannot even file motions — which is crucial for ensuring equality of arms and the principle of adversarial proceedings. A so-called trial conducted under such restrictions for 10 months cannot be fair, and we are presenting this issue to international organizations,” Sahakyan said.
As for the appointment of the new public defender, Sahakyan noted that it is merely formal in nature. She drew attention to the fact that, even for formality’s sake, no additional time was granted to the new lawyer to at least briefly familiarize themselves with the case materials, since the next hearing was scheduled to take place within the same one-week interval as before.
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“Moreover, as experts have already pointed out, that lawyer is known for his overt Armenophobia, which is also concerning. Naturally, he will act as an extension and representative of the prosecution, so it is clear that there can be no talk of an actual defense,” Sahakyan concluded.