DECISION ON EXTENDING ARREST OF VARDAN MALKHASIAN REMAINS IN FORCE
Noyan Tapan
May 03 2007
YEREVAN, MAY 3, NOYAN TAPAN. The RA Appeal Court of Criminal and
Military Cases on May 2 left unchanged the decision of the court of
first instance to extend the arrest of Vardan Malkhasian charged with
making public calls for taking state power by force.
To recap, V. Malkhasian has been under arrest since December 12,
2006, and by the April 5 decision of the court of first instance,
the term of his arrest was extended until June 10.
Mushegh Shushanian, lawyer of V. Malkhasian, told NT correspondent
that the Appeal Court did not take into consideration the request
of the defence to create equal conditions for V. Malkhasian,
who is registered as a candidate for deputacy to participate in
the parliamentary elections by the majoritarian electoral system,
with other candidates for deputacy. The lawyer noted that the court
ignored the requirement of Article 111, Part 6 of the RA Electoral
Code, according to which a candidate for deputacy may be arrested
only in case of consent of two thirds of the total number of members
of the Central Election Commission (CEC).
In the words of M. Shushanian, the RA Cassation Court does not
mainly accept for examination the applications disputing decisions of
the Appeal Court, so he will appeal to the European Court of Human
Rights. The decision to choose arrest with respect to V. Malkhasian
has already been appealed against in the indicated court.