Cavalier Use of Custody in Armenia

Institute for War and Peace Reporting, UK
IWPR Caucasus Reporting #704
Oct 5 2013

Cavalier Use of Custody in Armenia

Suspects are often held for months on relatively minor charges.
By Anna Muradyan – Caucasus

The case of four men accused of minor property damage and held in jail
for about six months without trial has become a cause celebre in
Armenia. It has raised questions about the practice of detaining
suspects for lengthy periods, and more broadly about how criminal
cases are constructed.

The four young men were detained in April, accused of a number of
instances of arson that damaged hay to a total value of 36,000 drams
(90 US dollars).

Three of the suspects – Aram Mughalyan, Robert Piloyan, Gagik
Arakelyan – are charged with hooliganism and destruction of property,
which could carry seven-year sentences.

A fourth, Artur Klyan, was charged only with hooliganism. He has now
been released from pre-trial custody after collapsing in court and
spending 12 days in hospital.

It is quite normal for people to spend months in detention before
going to trial in Armenia.

This case only achieved prominence because the four were from educated
backgrounds in the capital Yerevan, and thus had contacts with the
wherewithal to campaign on their behalf. All four are university
graduates, Mughalyan from Cambridge University via a scholarship
programme.

University professors, leading academics and two members of parliament
from the ruling Republican Party added their names to an appeal for
the men to be released pending trial.

Leading Yerevan city counsellor Anahit Bakhshyan wrote to Armenia’s
chief prosecutor arguing that holding suspects for months on end was
punitive and hardly a sensible use of public funds.

`Was the punishment inflicted upon them really proportionate? What
were these young men arrested for? Who have they harmed?’ Bakhshyan
asked in the letter.

The story began when Siaband Khudoyan, from the village Norapat in the
Armavir region, phoned police on three occasions to report that
someone had set his hay on fire.

Police failed to find the culprits, but tracked the four men down from
a car number plate. They were pulled in, interrogated over 18 days,
and then formally charged and placed in pre-trial detention.

Their defence lawyers filed numerous court applications for
conditional release, but all were turned down.

Khachik Gevorgyan, the head of Armacad, a network of academic
researchers, told IWPR, that the charges did not merit prolonged
custody.

`In my opinion, and in that of many people involved in civic issues,
it is a massively disproportionate punishment for individuals to be
held in detention on such charges,’ he said.
Prosecutors have avoided commenting on the matter.

Preparations for the trial have been further delayed because the lead
prosecutor was reassigned, and his replacement needed time to study
the case files.

Their case appears to be based largely on a videoed confession by
Mughalyan, a piece of evidence that was revealed before trial when it
was shown on a popular police crime show on TV.

Mkrtich Davtyan, counsel for two other suspects, Piloyan and
Arakelyan, alleges that the confession was extracted from Mughalyan
through coercion and without a lawyer present. He told IWPR that his
own client Piloyan was beaten, and that prosecutors were refusing to
allow physical evidence of this to be presented in court.

`The only evidence is the video of Aram [Mughalyan], even though
investigators obtained his confession by pressuring him,’ Davtyan
said. `I hope that this will be made clear at the court hearing, and
that the video will not be admitted as evidence.’

Mughalyan announced a hunger strike to protest against his continued
detention. On October 2, his lawyers said he had spent 48 hours
without even drinking water.

Until the trial begins, three of the four accused look certain to
remain in custody. Some believe they might be freed under a general
amnesty introduced to mark the 22nd anniversary of Armenian
independence from the Soviet Union. The country’s parliament has
already approved the amnesty, which is expected to see 1,200 or 1,300
prisoners released by December 25. It is not yet clear, however,
whether the four accused will be included.

Anna Muradyan is a correspondent for the website in Armenia.