"THE VERDICT DENIGRATES ARMENIA"

A1+
[05:11 pm] 21 December, 2007

The RA Cassation Court will hear the case of the "Royal Armenia"
Company in 2008. "Time is not pressing. We needn’t hurry," Attorney
Ashot Sargsian told A1+.

The latter is presently studying the "disgraceful verdict" brought
in by the Appellate Court on Marshal and Criminal Issues.

"The verdict denigrates Armenia. I have never come across such infamous
verdicts throughout my practice.

The judge, Suren Ghazarian, has brought in an adverse verdict which
defames Armenia," Ashot Sargsian says.

Reminder, the "FIG" Company charged Royal Armenia’s leading shareholder
Gagik Hakobian and executive director Aram Ghazarian with smuggling,
tax evasion and document forgery. FIG is a caterer of the "Royal
Armenia" coffee company.

Gagik Hakobian was sentenced to 6 years’ and Aram Ghazarian to 2
years’ imprisonment.

According to Ashot Sargsian the judge’s verdict is unwarranted.

"They have merely retyped the verdict of the First Instance Court
of Kentron and Nork-Marash communes. I am not exaggerating," Ashot
Sargsian says.

The most striking is that they fully reprinted the material submitted
by the preinvestigation body. The reprint is but a failure," Sargsian
states.

Ashot Sargsian does not count on the Appellate Court’s impartiality. He
is going to quash the verdict in the European Court.