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    Emil Lazarian
  • 2 years ago
    • Categories: 2022

Lawyers warn of new violation in Avetik Chalabyan’s case

Panorama
Armenia – July 2 2022

Lawyers of arrested opposition activist Avetik Chalabyan have sounded the alarm on another violation in their client’s case concerning the assignment of an appeal against his arrest.

The defense appealed against the decision of a Yerevan first instance court to reject a request for Chalabyan’s release to a higher court. The appeal was first automatically assigned to a judge of the Court of Criminal Appeals, but then "manually" passed to another judge, the legal team quoted lawyer Varazdat Harutyunyan as saying on social media.

According to the lawyer, on Friday the Court of Appeals said that judge Arshak Vardanyan had been appointed to the case, but today it turned out that the case had been unlawfully passed to lawyer Tigran Simonyan, who has the lowest rating on HelpCourt, a review site for judges, the legal team said in a statement.

Chalabyan was arrested on May 12 for allegedly trying to pay students of the Armenian National Agrarian University to participate in anti-government protests in Yerevan. He has denied the charges as politically motivated.

Chalabyan is a co-founder of Arar Foundation, a charity supporting the Armenian army as well as border villages in Armenia and Artsakh.

Emil Lazarian: “I should like to see any power of the world destroy this race, this small tribe of unimportant people, whose wars have all been fought and lost, whose structures have crumbled, literature is unread, music is unheard, and prayers are no more answered. Go ahead, destroy Armenia . See if you can do it. Send them into the desert without bread or water. Burn their homes and churches. Then see if they will not laugh, sing and pray again. For when two of them meet anywhere in the world, see if they will not create a New Armenia.” - WS