BUSINESSMAN DEMANDS CALLING TO ACCOUNT OFFICIALS WHO GRPOUNDLESSLY
DEPRIVED HIM OF FREEDOM

YEREVAN, MARCH 25, NOYAN TAPAN. Hakob Tcharoyan, a businessman, accuses
the former prosecutor of Gegharkunik marz, member of the RA Council of
Justice Albert Margarian of corruption. H. Tcharoyan, whom the court
found guilty of an attempt to lay hold of the property of another
person by fraud, demands that a new investigation be conducted,
his property returned, and the guilty officials be prosecuted. At
the March 23 press conference H. Tcharoyan said that Margarian and
the investigators of the Gegharkunik prosecutor’s office Hovsep
Sargsian and Vardan Avetisian took a bribe from his former partner –
the community head of the village Tchotchkan (Lori marz) Varuzhan
Tamazian and opened a trumped-up criminal case against him, according
to which he alone (without Tamazian) made an attempt, by forgery, to
take the possession of a flour mill being sold at auction. According
to T. Tcharoyan, the investigator H. Sargsian demanded a bribe from
him as well, and upon Tchroyan’s refusal, he fabricated evidence
against him. Later H. Sargsian refused to investigate the case,
whereas the next investigator Vardan Avetisian also produced false
evidence. H. Tcharoyan considered the decision made by the court of the
first instance of Lori marz (chaired by Judge Vahan Hovhannisian) to be
the result of an order and an obviously ufounded one. Before getting
to the above mentioned court, the case was examined by the court of
the first instance of Gegharkunik marz. The first judge declined to
examine thre case, the second judge was challenged by the prosecution
(since, according to Tcharoyan, this judge realized the case was a
fabricated one), the third judge ruled the case should go to the court
of the first instance of Lori marz – allegedly, to prevent the regional
prosecutor’s office from putting pressure on the court. H. Tcharoyan
was sentenced to 4.5 years’ imprisonment and spent 3 years and 3 months
in prison. After much delay, the highest court left his court sentence
unchanged. Thus H. Tcharoyan has exhausted all means of achieving
justice in Armenia and intends to apply to the European Court of Human
Rights. The businessman stated that the charge of attempting to lay
hold of the valuable property of V. Tamazian by means of fraud and
abuse of confidence was an ungrounded and trumped-up one. According
to him, the point is that Tamazian and he came into conflict over
the property, and Tamazian decided to retain the mill by getting rid
of Tcharoyan. According to the RA Office of Prosecutor General, no
sufficient evidence has been obtained to open a criminal case based on
the bribe taking fact mentioned in H. Tcharoyan’s application. The
refusal to open a criminal case was motivated by the absence of a
crime – the investigators of the Gegharkunik prosecutor’s office
denied having demanded or taken a bribe, while V. Tamazian denied
that he had given one. H. Sharoyan refused to name the source that
had informed him about Tamazian’s bribing the prosecutors.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress