IT IS NOT EXCLUDED THAT HRANT BAGRATIAN WILL APPLY TO EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS

NOYAN TAPAN

JU LY 25

Lawyer Artur Grigorian representing the interests of former RA
Prime Minister Hrant Bagratian is going to appeal against the July
10 judgement of Yerevan Civil Court at the RA Civil Appeal Court. He
said this at the July 24 meeting with journalists classing the case
examined against the former RA Prime Minister by the lawsuit of the
current Prime Minister as to some extent political persecution.

Current RA Prime Minister Tigran Sargsian when being the CBA Chairman
applied to the court with a lawsuit against former Prime Minister
Hrant Bagratian demanding refuting information discrediting his honor,
dignity, and business authority. The court had partially sustained
the lawsuit.

According to the court, the expression "Tigran Sargsian had been
chasing Ardshinbank long ago," is not subject to refutation, as it is
an opinion, and on the rest the court judgement obliges to publish a
refutation in the Aravot newspaper in a 10-day term by apologizing
to Tigran Sargsian and to readers. By the way, apologizing is not
envisaged by the Code of Civil Procedure, the court obviously surpassed
its powers. A. Grigorian considers that the court has deprived them
of the possibility to introduce proof by not sustaining their petition
demanding a number of documents containing bank secret: in particular,
these are all CBA Board decisions on the process of Ardshinbank
bankruptcy, on all quarter accounts of Agrobank (when bank’s owner
was Hakob Hakobian), on the decisions of Agrobank Board of Directors
in the same period, on the case of ArmSavingsBank privatization."

Hrant Bagratian in his article under the title Decisions Should Be
Reconsidered, Former Prime Minister Hrant Bagratian Is Sure in the
February 2 issue of the Aravot newspaper expressed his position on
processes of stopping the activity of a number of banks formerly
functioning in RA. He said that Ardshinbank, in essence, was
a normally acting bank, and if there had not been the artificial
criminal prosecutions, it is not excluded that the bank would be
financially rehabilitated and would work normally. On the part of
Agrobank Bagratian mentioned that bank’s shares were deliberately given
to a person not connected with bank’s activity, which contributed
to the process of bank’s artificial bankruptcy. ArmSavingsBank’s
privatization also, according to the former Prime Minister, pursued
concrete purposes, finally the assets of all these banks were given
to Ardshininvesbank. H.

Bagratian concluded that all that was done deliberately and the Central
Bank of Armenia and its Chairman Tigran Sargsian were responsible for
all that, as the law On Banking Activity gives CBA a possibility to
bankrupt any bank.

A. Grigorian said that if the Appeal Court’s judgement does not
satisfy them, the side, after the RA Cassation Court’s decision,
first of all in a 6-month term will introduce a preliminary letter
and then a complete package of complaints to the European Court of
Human Rights. "I welcome current Prime Minister’s policy on fighting
corruption, but the continuation of this case, in all appearances,
will result in T. Sargsian’s directly or indirectly delivering a blow
to the RA rating when the European Court demands explanations from
the RA government concerning the complaint," the lawyer said.