CRIMINAL APPEAL COURT REJECTS COMPLAINTS OF PROSECUTION AND DEFENCE IN NIKOL PASHINIAN’S CASE
Noyan Tapan
March 9, 2010
YEREVAN, MARCH 9, NOYAN TAPAN. By the March 9 decision of the Criminal
Appeal Court of Armenia, the decision of the general jurisdiction
court of Yerevan’s Kentron and Nork-Marash administrative regions on
the case of Haykakan Zhamanak daily’s editor-in-chief Nikol Pashinian
was left unchanged, and the complaints of the prosecution and the
defence were rejected.
To recap, the general jurisdiction court of Kentron and Nork-Marash
administrative regions had found Pashinian guilty of organizing mass
disorder in Yerevan on 1 March 2008, but acquitted Pashinian of the
charge of committing violence (not dangerious for life or health)
against a representative of the authorities on 23 October 2007. N.
Pashinian had been sentenced to 7 years’ imprisonment.
The Appeal Court exmained N. Pashinian’s case based on the complaints
of both the prosecution and the defence: the first demanded quashing
the verdict of his partial acquittal and returning a verdict of guilty
regarding this charge as well, whereas the latter demanded acquittng
N. Pashinian due to the absence of corpus delicti.
According to RA Cassation Court’s spokeswoman Alina Yengoyan, the
Appeal Court applied Clause 7 Part 2 of the National Assembly Decision
on the Declaration of General Amnesty, under which the unserved part
of the prison term was reduced by a half.
N. Pashinian’s lawyer Lusine Sahakian told NT correspondent that the
defence will appeal the Appeal Court’s decision in the Cassation Court.