A while ago, Sargis Ohanjanyan (born in 1991) was apprehended under the criminal case being examined in regard to disrespect towards Judge Anna Danibekyan of the first instance court of general jurisdiction of Yerevan. Narek Mutafyan (born in 1993) has been arrested within the scope of this case.

Let us remind that yesterday Narek Mutafyan approached Judge Anna Danibekyan (the judge examining the case of the events of March 1, 2008) with a camera and asked her questions and particularly asked if Danibekyan is “in the list of judges whining underneath the walls of court buildings”.

Touching upon the topic in an interview with 168.am, lawyer Aram Vardevanyan stated that he sees problems with the lawfulness of the decision on arrest, but attaches importance to respect towards each and every judge.

“We’re talking about an act in which case even detention can’t be applied as a preventive measure and the sanction (imprisonment) for the act doesn’t exceed the one-year term. Consequently, such a situation implies a low degree of danger posed to the public (I am using words used in criminal law). In this case, why is there a decision on arrest?

It is assumed that these people committed an act provided for by the Criminal Code for which the possible punishment, if there is a verdict that has entered into legal force, may not exceed one-year imprisonment. Why did the court decide to arrest? Here it seems as though there was no problem with hiding or not showing up upon request. When I read the press release, I saw that it was stated that special measures were taken to detect, etc., but it seems as though everything was available on Facebook and on the Internet, for that matter. I don’t understand the need for the court’s decision,” he said.

The lawyer gave evaluations of the respectful attitude towards courts and judges, based on some episodes of the recent events that took place in the judiciary.

“Judge Azaryan announced a judicial act that implied objectivity, an analysis of functional immunity, and then there was extremely big pressure on courts and a lot of offensive remarks. Neither the Supreme Judicial Council nor law-enforcement authorities gave evaluations.

Davit Balayan’s case was so evident. Police not only used physical force against him (pulled his hands and threw him to the ground), but also offended him, showed disrespectful attitude towards him by creating many real and fake pages on the Internet. However, there was no evaluation of all this. Moreover, one of my colleagues, Hrant Ananyan had filed a report on the crime, but both the Special Investigation Service and the Prosecutor General’s Office had rejected institution of a criminal case based on this report, and now the court is examining the issue since Hrant Ananyan had filed an appeal.

Another fact: When Alvina Gyulumyan, a respected specialist, judge of the Constitutional Court, representative judge of Armenia at the European Court of Human Rights, comes out of the court, ten people approach her, offend her and even try to pull her hand. There were police officers standing nearby. Did they apprehend those people? Did any of them get arrested? Did the same police officers take measures as urgently as they did in those cases? As a matter of fact, the Supreme Judicial Council didn’t issue any statement.

When the incident of Davit Grigoryan took place and lawyers were making statements, the Supreme Judicial Council kept silent, but yesterday, the Supreme Judicial Council issued a statement one-and-a-half hour later.

What signal are we sending? In any case, including in the case of Danibekyan, I believe there must always be a respectful attitude towards courts.”

Touching upon the well-known and sensational statements by Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia regarding “whining judges”, to whom the chairperson of the Supreme Judicial Council had also touched upon later and in regard to which Narek Mutafyan had asked Danibekyan, Vardevanyan said the following:

“As far as I have explored the issue, if I am not mistaken, disrespectful attitude is about the formulation “whining judge”, but excuse me, I believe it was the chairperson of the Supreme Judicial Council who allowed himself to say those words. How can it be admissible in one case and disrespectful attitude in another case? I believe this is disrespectful attitude in all cases.”

Zaruhi Dilanyan