The Prosecutor General's Office has lodged an appeal regarding the court decision of 18.05.2019. concerning the changed measure of restraint /from imprisonment to personal guarantee/ of the accused by the criminal case of R. Kocharyan as well as the decision to apply to the Constitutional Court.
Appeal has been lodged on the basis of legislation with full preservation of the procedures. In particular, under Point 10.1 of Art. 6 of the RA CPC, court decisions on measures of restraint and suspension of criminal proceedings are not judicial acts that decide the case on the merits. According to Point 3 and Point 4 of Article 375.1 of the same code, the decisions of the courts of first instance to change the preventative measure and to suspend the proceedings are subject of appeal.
Appeal to suspend the proceedings of this criminal case has been lodged on the basis of Part 3 of Article. 31 of the RA CPC.
In the appeal it has been substantiated that the judicial act has been adopted by the court in the absence of the substantive and legal conditions of applying to the Court of Cassation and as a result of the adoption, the court has made a judicial error - a significant violation of the CPC. In particular:
- The court, based almost entirely on the arguments and legal grounds presented by the defense party, have come to the conclusion that there are doubts in accordance with Art. 72, Art. 73, Art. 79 of the RA Constitution of the current version of Art. 300.1 of the Criminal Code, and Part 1 of Art. 300, in force in 2008.
- The court has appealed to the Constitutional Court with a view to interpret Art. 56.1 and Art. 57 of the RA Constitution, in the case when there is an appropriate interpretation of the RA Court of Cassation and the decision made on that basis.
- The Court of General Jurisdiction has also presented to the Constitutional Court the issue of clarification of the provisions of the constitutional norms established by Art. 56 and Art. 57 of the RA Constitution / edition 2005 /, to which court does not have the right. According to Part 9 of Art. 68 of the Constitutional Law of the Republic of Armenia, a court may receive clarifications from the Constitutional Court regarding constitutional norms only if court considers that any norm of a legal act to be applied contradicts this constitutional provision. However, the court has not raised the issue of compliance of any provision of the legal act with the mentioned norms.
Taking into account the above mentioned circumstances, the Prosecutor General Artur Davtyan has sent a copy of the above appeal to the RA Constitutional Court with а request of the court of general jurisdiction of Yerevan to reject the investigation of the case on the basis of a statement submitted by decision of 20.05.2019. on the termination of criminal proceedings and appeal to the RA Constitutional Court.
