"PRESS-RELEASE
"YERKIR", UNION OF NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS FOR REPATRIATION AND
SETTLEMENT
Contact: Robert Tatoyan
Mobile: +(374 94) 36 17 93
E-mail: [email protected]
13 March 2009
Yerevan, Armenia
THE NEXT COURT HEARING OF THE CASE OF JAVAKHETI ARMENIAN POLITICAL
ACTIVIST VAHAGN CHAKHALYAN IS HELD IN AKHALTSIKHE
On March 11-12, 2009 the Akhaltsikhe District Court held the hearing of the
case of the Javakheti political activist, the leader of the `United Javakhk’
`Democratic Alliance’ political movement- Vahagn Chakhalyan, his father-
Ruben Chakhalyan and younger brother- Armen Chakhalyan.
The Observers of the `Yerkir’ Union have recorded the following facts:
1. Forty-one days have passed since the last court hearing of the Chakhalyan’s
case was held on January 29. After that the court assigned the day for the
hearing two times: first – for the 11th and then -for the 26th of February.
However, the hearing never took place, because the Georgian authorities
failed to transfer Vahagn Chakhalyan from Tbilisi to Ahaltskha, due to lack
of fuel, according to the official explanation.
2. Court hearings were still held in the absence of Patrick Arapian,
Chakhalyan’s French lawyer, who was denied registration by the Ministry of
Justice on February 16. The Public Defender of Georgia – Sozar Subari in his
letter to the Minister of Justice Z. Adeishvili assessed this decision as
`unreasonable’. He further recommended restoring the violated rights of the
Chakhalyans by allowing the participation of the French lawyer in the
lawsuit (the Ombudsman’s full letter is presented in Aannex 1).
3. The Chakhalyans’ Armenian lawyer – Stepan Voskanyan currently has an
ambivalent status. On March 6, when he tried to visit his client, Vahagn
Chakhalyan, who is kept in pre-trial prison No 5 in Tbilisi, the employees
of the institution informed him that the decision of the Ministry of Justice
on his appointment as Chakhalyan’s lawyer is no longer valid, and tried to
prevent him from meeting his client.
4. At the beginning of the trial held on March 11 the advocate Voskanyan
raised the question of his status, but the judge refused in all possible
ways to respond to his question, arguing that the Court recognizes Voskanian
as Chakhalyans’ lawyer, and the question of recognition or rejection of his
status by other agencies is not within the scope of competence of the Court.
5. The translation of the court hearings continues to be implemented
extremely inaccurately, with omissions and interruptions. The Court once
again paid no attention to the complaints of the Chakhalyans and their
Armenian lawyer, as well as to their suggestion to suspend the trial in
order to ensure a more acceptable translation.
6. At the beginning of the trial on the 12th of March the Chakhalyans made a
statement, read out by Vahagn Chakhalyan. The statement listed the most
recent violations by the Georgian authorities, including the denial of
registration of Patrick Arapian, the ambivalent status of Stepan Voskanian,
and so on. The Chakhalyans asked to postpone the trial, which would give
them a chance to solve the mentioned problems. The statement noted that
further proceedings would be simply illegal, because without solving the
aforementioned problems the court would violate the Chakhalyans’
constitutional rights (See the full text of the Statement in Annex 2). The
court, however, refused to meet the requirements made in the statement and
continued the hearing.
7. At the court hearings on the 11th and 12th of March, 16 witnesses were
interrogated. All of them used to be or still are the employees of the local
law-enforcement structures. The court heard the circumstances of the protest
action held on 9 October 2006 in Akhlkalaki, aimed at revision of the local
self-governing bodies election results. It should be mentioned, that the
organization of the protest action is one of the charges against Vahagn
Chakhalyan.
8. After questioning all the witnesses present the court postponed the
hearing till the 25th of March.
The abovementioned facts once again demonstrate that the Georgian
authorities do not restrain even the most flagrant violations, and continue
to carry out the persecution of Javakheti Armenian political activist.
The «Yerkir» Union calls on the international institutions and human rights
organizations, urging them to consider the recorded violations and exercise
pressure on the Georgian authorities with the aim of cutting short the
shameful trial of the Chakhalyans family and releasing the Javakheti
Armenian political activist from prison.
ANNEX 1. THE LETTER OF THE PUBLIC DEFENDER OF GEORGIA SOZAR SUBARI TO THE
MINISTER OF JUSTICE OF GEORGIA ZURAB ADEISHVILI
06 March 2009
On 4 March, 2009 Ruben, Armen and Vahagn Chakhalyans’ lawyer Stepan
Voskanyan addressed to the Ombudsman on the issue of unjustified refusal of
admission of Patrick Arapian, the French lawyer, member of the Paris Bar, as
an attorney of Ruben, Vahagn and Armen Chakhalyans on the ongoing trial,
asking the Public Defender of Georgia to react to this fact.
In its order ?-41 dated at February 12, 2009 the Ministry of Justice of
Georgia denied the application of Gayane Chakhalyan, asking to allow the
registration of Patrick Arapian as an attorney of Ruben, Armen and Vahagn
Chakhalyans. In the motivation part of the order the Ministry of Justice,
without any justification considers inappropriate the appointment of Patrick
Arapian as an attorney of Ruben, Armen and Vahagn Chakhalyans.
The Ombudsman’s office examined the question of the legitimacy of
appointment of the French lawyer -Patrick Arapian, as an attorney of Ruben,
Armen and Vahagn Chakhalyans, and believed that by the adoption of order ?-41
the Ministry of Justice of Georgia has violated the right to be protected,
as guaranteed by Article 42 of the Constitution of Georgia, as well as by
the criminal procedure law.
According to Article 11 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Georgia, «officer
who conducts criminal proceedings, has an obligation to ensure the suspect’s
and defendant’s right to defense, to explain their right, to give
opportunity to defend themselves by all means permissible by law, to protect
their rights and freedoms».
The requirement of Article 78 of the Criminal Procedure Code is that the
body leading the process, has no right to restrict a suspect or defendant in
a choice of an attorney. By permission of the Ministry of Justice of
Georgia, foreign lawyers may be admitted as attorneys.
The suspect’s, accused person’s or defendant’s request to replace attorney
or invite a new one should be granted, if the change of attorney or the
appointment of a new one does not have the aim to delay the trial or other
actions that impede the conduct of the trial.
According to Article 83 of the Criminal Procedure Code, the body leading the
court may restrict to a reasonable number of defenders participating in
court proceedings, if the restriction is to avoid undue delay of trial. At
the same time, the party should be given the right to full legal protection.
Based on the abovementioned legal norms, we conclude that the refusal of the
Ministry of Justice to appoint a French lawyer as a defender of Ruben, Armen
and Vahagn Chakhalyans, is unwarranted. Despite the fact that the interests
of the Chakhayans are protected by lawyers Voskanyan and Rostiashvili, they
have the right to engage a foreign lawyer to defend their interests, as the
Chakhalyans believe that it is necessary to ensure the full protection and
do not prolong the trial. If the issue applied to the Georgian lawyer, the
judge leading the trial would be obliged to give the Chakhalyans the
opportunity to defend themselves by all means authorized by the law. In this
case, the issue concerning the foreign lawyer is the jurisdiction of the
Ministry of Justice and, since all the documents submitted by Gayane
Chakhalyan meet the requirements for admission of the attorney, there was no
factual and legal circumstances for the refusal and the admission should
have been granted.
According to the statute of the Ministry of Justice approved by the
President of Georgia by Order ?- 541, 7 November 2008, the Ministry of
Justice is a body that supervises the legal prosecution and procedural
conduct of preliminary investigation, as well as other functions prescribed
by law and, including those relating to the admission of foreign lawyers in
Georgian courts. Chakhalyan’s precedent shows that transmission to the
Ministry of Justice the functions of addressing both defense and prosecution
issues is inconsistent, and because for this body the criminal prosecution
functions are dominant, it is highly probable that there will be violation
of the right to be protected, as a good example is the Chakhalyans’ case.
Based on the abovementioned, pursuant to subparagraph «b» 21 of the Law «On
Ombudsman», I recommend you the following: in order to restore Armen, Ruben
and Vahagn Chakhalyan’s violated rights to allow French lawyer Patrick
Arapian as a defender to trial.
Sincerely,
Sozar Subari
ANNEX 2.THE STATEMENT OF RUBEN, VAHAGN AND ARMEN CHAKHALYANS
12 March 2009
To Tsira Maisuradze, the Chairwoman of the Akhaltsikha Regional Court
We, Ruben, Vahagn, and Armen Chakhalyans, state that major violations have
been committed since the last hearing (on January 28) of the lawsuit that
was filed against us:
1.On February 16, 2009 the Ministry of Justice of Georgia illegally denied
the French attorney Patrick Arapian the permission to participate as our
advocate in the court hearings, without providing any legitimate reasons. As
it was declared by the Human Rights Defender of Georgia -Sozar Subari, the
decision is illegal and violates our rights provided for by the
Constitution.
2. At present, our advocate from Armenia finds himself in an ambiguous
position, as some time before he was told that the decision of the Ministry
of Justice of Georgia regarding the participation in the Chakhalyan’s case
had lost its power. Furthermore, attempts were made to prevent him from
seeing his client `Vahagn Chakhalyan, who is held in the pre-trial prison N5
in Tbilisi.
The following problems dealing with the process of the court hearings also
remain unsolved.
1. The Armenian translation of the hearings is very inaccurate and of poor
quality, which hampers our adequate participation in the lawsuit.
2.The court hearings have been put off several times by some absurd reasons.
In addition, the days of the court hearings are appointed by the Court at
its own discretion, without preliminary informing and agreement.
Taking into account the above-stated facts, we require the court to solve
the above-mentioned problems, in particular:
– Give us some time, so that the Ministry of Justice can clear up the
ambiguous situation regarding the status of our advocates, Patrick Arapian
and Stepan Voskanyan;
– To ensure the proper translation during the court hearings;
– To provide us with the minutes of court proceedings that have been
recorded till now:
We declare that it is illegal to continue the lawsuit without meeting the
mentioned requirements, as without solving the problems raised, you violate
our constitutional rights.