7.5 thousand euros. RA will provide compensation in the cases of “March 1” according to ECHR decisions

At the session of the government on November 29, the executive adopted two drafts of the decision to allocate money from its reserve fund to the Ministry of Justice. The aim is to compensate for lost cases at the European Court of Human Rights.

The first case is the “Ayvazyan v. Armenia” case (complaint no. 46245/08). In order to fulfill the requirements of the judgment of October 18, 2018, the draft decision states that, in the fourth quarter of 2018, AMD equivalent to 4,500 euros should be allocated to the Ministry of Justice at the expense of the reserve fund provided for in the 2018 state budget for the fair compensation specified in the judgment. This case is related to the events of March 1-2, 2008. 

The description of the case states that on March 1, 2008, the gathering in Freedom Square was dispersed by the police, and the applicant, who was in Freedom Square at that time, was arrested and later convicted under Article 316, Part 1 of the RA Criminal Code, on the charge of violence against police officers.

On June 11, 2008, the Administrative District Court found the applicant guilty of violence against police officers and sentenced him to 1.5 years in prison.

In this case, the European Court recorded a violation of Article 5, Clause 1 and Article 5, Clause 3 of the Convention.

The European Court came to the conclusion that the arrest applied to the applicant from May 1 to 13, 2008 was not based on a court decision, therefore it was not legal.

Next is the “Hovhannisyan v. Armenia” case (complaint No. 18419/13). According to the draft decision, in order to fulfill the requirements of the judgment of the ECHR of July 19, 2018, the amount equivalent to 3000 euros will be allocated to the Ministry of Justice from the account of the reserve fund in the fourth quarter of 2018 for the just compensation defined by the judgment.

In the description of the case, it is mentioned that the applicant is a civil servant who works as a state inspector in the RA Ministry of Nature Protection.

According to the applicant, on January 10, 2012, the head of his department and his deputy abused him. In particular, they attacked him, grabbed his hands, insulted him and forcibly took a document related to him. As a result of the violence, he fainted, suffered physical injuries, received many bruises on his arms and was seriously humiliated.

The applicant submitted a written report to the Ministry’s chief of staff, describing in detail what happened.

The head of the department and his deputy gave a statement to the police and denied the use of violence against the applicant.

According to the conclusion of the appointed expert, the physical injuries of the applicant, both taken separately and all together, did not contain elements of short-term damage to health. The prosecutor ordered the investigator to reject the initiation of a criminal case on the basis that no crime was committed.

On March 5, 2012, the investigator refused to open a criminal case due to the lack of a criminal record. The Criminal Court of Appeal rejected the applicant’s appeal and fully upheld the decision of the Administrative District Court.

In this case, the European Court recorded a violation of the procedural component of Article 3 of the Convention. The European Court first noted that the applicant had made an arguable allegation before the competent national authorities that he had been ill-treated, then observed that an independent and effective investigation of the case should have been carried out, which would have made it possible to ascertain the facts of the case and, if the allegations were found to be true, to identify the culprits and impose a possible punishment on them.