RA COURT OF APPEAL STARTS CONSIDERING VARDAN ZURNACHYAN’s APPEAL
YEREVAN, JULY 21. ARMINFO. The RA Court of Appeal has started
considering an appeal lodged by Vardan Zurnachyan, lawyer of the
opposition activist Lavrenty Kirakosyan.
Advancing arguments for his appeal, Zurnachyan stated that the
investigation was conducted with gross violations of the Code of
Criminal Procedure. Kirakosyan’s flat was searched on the last day of
his being under arrest for participating in the opposition’s rallies
not sanctioned by the authorities. “After a telephone conversation,
during which the policemen reported that nothing suspicious had been
found, they came back and searched the tank once more and found a
package with green substance. Moreover, my client was subjected to
violence at the police station. This and other violations testify that
the investigation was not impartial and the case is trumped up,”
Zurnachyan said. The lawyer asked the court to invite as witnesses the
Head Physician of the Baghramyan regional hospital and the medical
nurse who rendered medical aid to Kirakosyan that day.
Speaking in court, Kirakosyan pointed out that he is being persecuted
for political reasons. “Since 1995, the time of dictatorship of the
Armenian National Movement, I have been persecuted by the police. A
testimony to that is the criminal charge of unlawful possession of
arms trumped up against me at that time, for which I was unfairly
imprisoned for six months. And now I am being persecuted for my being
honest and committed to principles during last year’s elections and
latest developments in this spring,” he said.
Lavrenty Kirakosyan, the active member of the National-Democratic
Union, which is part of the opposition bloc “Justice”, was sentenced
to 18 months of imprisonment for unlawful possession of drugs. The
convict and his lawyer claim that the drugs were put stealthily by the
policemen during the search in his house. The trial is to be resumed
on July 26.