PRESS RELEASE
The Heritage Party
7 Vazgen Sargsian Street
Yerevan 0010, Armenia
Tel.: (+374 – 10) 58.08.77, 52.22.38
Fax: (+374 – 10) 54.38.97
Email: info@heritage.am; office@heritage.am
Website:
May 22, 2006
Heritage Party Headquarters Still Under Lock: Court Case Delayed
Yerevan–Heritage Party Chairman Raffi K. Hovannisian’s legal claim against
the administration of the Paronian Theater was heard on May 19 at the Court
of First Instance of Yerevan’s Central and Nork-Marash communities. The
hearing was presided over by Judge Edward Avetisian.
The events leading to Hovannisian’s petition began on March 4, 2006, when
party representatives witnessed the unlawful replacement, without prior
notice, of the already-smashed lock of the outside door to the party’s main
office, whose space, located at 7 Vazgen Sargsian Street, Raffi Hovannisian
has leased since 1994. The lock was replaced by the chief engineer and two
members from the auxiliary staff of the theater. In the meantime, the entire
process was supervised by two unknown men who were sitting in a nearby car.
The very same day, the theater’s administration assumed responsibility for
this act and concealed its true architects. Since then, the party’s seal and
documents necessary for normal operations, as well as personal and family
belongings of Hovannisian and his staff, are kept under the control of the
theater’s management. Hovannisian had sent a communiqué to Armenia’s
Attorney General Aghvan Hovsepian and Police Chief Haik Harutiunian in
regard to the unlawful operation carried out against the office and formally
requested that they give an imperative legal assessment of what had occurred
and bring those responsible to justice. They, however, sent a reply stating
that the dispute between Hovannisian and the administration of the theater
is a civil disagreement and thus must be resolved by the courts.
An official claim was filed on April 11 at the Center-Nork Marash Court
against the Paronian Theater’s management wherein it was demanded that the
infringement upon the right of control and usage of property be lifted. In
order to prohibit the taking of certain actions by the theater’s management
against the property under its control, the plaintiff simultaneously
submitted a petition to restore the right of access to the belongings of
Raffi Hovannisian and the Heritage Party. The court ruled in favor of this
petition, and the order was forwarded to the Service for Mandatory Execution
of Judicial Acts at the Ministry of Justice. However, in an unprecedented
action that lacked clear explanation, this body returned the petition and
the order back to the Court. On May 19, Judge Avetisian sent the same ruling
to the aforementioned service a second time.
On May 19, the first hearing of the case opened in the absence of the
defendant, which had not presented a formal request for the continuance of
the trial. It had instead previously informed the court of its position that
the lease signed between the theater administration and the tenant was not
officially notarized and consequently void, and so the petition is
unsubstantiated and subject to dismissal. This “objection” by the defendant
became grounds for Vahan Grigorian, Raffi Hovannisian’s attorney to submit,
by way of introducing relevant evidence, a request for making additional
claims, in particular those which derive under the law by consequence of
nullification of contracts. The Court, taking all submissions into account,
adjourned and set a new hearing on June 1.
Founded in 2002, Heritage has regional divisions throughout the land. Its
central headquarters are located at 7 Vazgen Sargsian Street, Yerevan
375010, Armenia, with telephone contact at (374-10) 580.877, fax at (374-10)
543.897, and email at info@heritage.am