A short while ago, the Criminal Court of Appeal of Armenia, under the chairmanship of Judge Mkhitar Papoyan, overturned the first instance court’s decision on the pre-trial measure against Prosperous Armenia Party leader Gagik Tsarukyan and sent it back for further examination. This is what Tsarkyan’s attorney Emin Khachatryan told Armenian News-NEWS.am.
The attorneys weren’t in the courtroom when the Court announced its decision.
Khachatryan stated that he and the other attorneys aren’t familiar with the Court’s decision and can’t say on which grounds the Court rendered such a decision.
The Prosecutor General’s Office of Armenia had appealed the first instance court’s decision on rejecting the motion to select arrest as a pre-trial measure against Tsarukyan, demanding that the Criminal Court of Appeal overturn it and arrest Tsarukyan.
Tsarukyan’s attorneys had also filed several appeals, one of which concerned a substantiated suspicion. The attorneys found that the court didn’t have any evidence that would substantiate that Tsarukyan is linked to the particular criminal case. The other appeal concerned the lawfulness of proceedings, and according to the attorneys, the case was supposed to be investigated by the Special Investigation Service, not the National Security Service.
Tsarukyan hadn’t shown up at the Criminal Court of Appeal since he is infected with the coronavirus.
Tsarukyan is charged with obstructing the will of voters through electoral fraud, but doesn’t accept the charge and views the case against him as unlawful.