ACQUITTED BUSINESSMAN POISED FOR FRESH ARREST
By Ruzanna Stepanian
Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
Oct 2 2007
An Armenian businessman acquitted in a landmark court ruling is
expected to return to Yerevan Wednesday to face fresh arrest and
prosecution on fraud charges which he says were trumped up in
retaliation for his allegations of high-level government corruption.
Gagik Hakobian, the leading shareholder in the Royal Armenia coffee
company, and its deputy director, Aram Ghazarian, were cleared of
any wrongdoing by a Yerevan court last July after spending nearly
two years in prison. Prosecutors challenged the sensational acquittal
at the higher Court of Appeals which opened hearings on the case in
late August.
Hakobian left Armenia to undergo medical treatment in Spain shortly
after his release and has failed to attend any of those hearings. The
Court of Appeals ordered law-enforcement authorities to locate and
again arrest the businessman, dismissing his assurances that he will
return to the country after completing the treatment.
Hakobian told RFE/RL last week that he will fly back to Yerevan on
October 3. His defense attorney, Ashot Sargsian, confirmed this on
Tuesday. Sargsian said his client will do so despite realizing that
he will be arrested again and could eventually be sentenced to 12
years in prison, a punishment demanded by the prosecutors.
"They will put on a show at the airport," the lawyer told RFE/RL.
"The moment he arrives here by plane he will be handcuffed and taken
away … This is the kind of country we live in."
The prosecutors and the State Customs Committee claim that Royal
Armenia illegally avoided paying more than 1 billion drams ($3 million)
worth of taxes and import duties. Hakobian and Ghazarian flatly deny
the charges which they say stem from their refusal to engage in a
scam that would have benefited two senior customs officials. The two
men publicly and repeatedly voiced those allegations in the months
leading up to their arrest in October 2005.
Pargev Ohanian, a Yerevan district judge who presided over their
first trial, effectively sided with Royal Armenia, rejecting the
charges brought by prosecutors as unfounded. The verdict is widely
linked with disciplinary proceedings subsequently launched against
Ohanian by a government-controlled body monitoring Armenian courts.
The Council of Justice, another, more powerful judicial body, is to
decide by next week whether to ask President Robert Kocharian to fire
the judge or sanction him otherwise.
Meanwhile, Armenia’s human rights ombudsman, Armen Harutiunian,
petitioned the Court of Appeals last week to scrap its arrest warrant
for the Royal Armenia owner. Harutiunian had declined to intervene
in the high-profile case until then.
"Kudos to [the ombudsman] for appealing against the arrest," said
Sargsian. "But will he be consistent in fighting for Hakobian’s
release after his petition is rejected? We’ll see."