The RA Prosecutor General Artur Davtyan has lodged cassation appeal against the verdict of court in the period of 2008-2009 regarding Smbat Ayvazyan.
By the verdict of the court of Kentron and Nork-Marash administrative districts of Yerevan, dated November 19, 2008, S. Ayvazyan has been pleaded guilty according to Part 4 of Art. 235 and Part 1 of Art. 316 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Armenia. He has been charged for illegally carrying a truncheon, which is considered to be a cold weapon, which, according to the materials of the criminal case, has been found out on February 24, 2008 during his personal search and also he has disobeyed the lawful requirements of the police officer, resisted, and threatened him. For these actions, Smbat Ayvazyan has been sentenced to a fine and punishment for 2 years in prison.
This verdict has been appealed by S. Ayvazyan and his lawyers in the RA Criminal Court of Appeal, which, however, by the decision of January 27, 2009 has dismissed the complaint. Despite the fact that cassation appeal has been lodged against the decision of the RA Criminal Court of Appeal, however, the Cassation Court of the Republic of Armenia has returned it on June 15, 2009, because of the lack of grounds. (S. Ayvazyan died in 2014).
As already mentioned, the RA Prosecutor General’s Office is considering these criminal cases regarding the post-election events of 2008 and judgments concerning the cases, by which violations of the rights of the convicts have been registered or new factual data have been obtained. Within the framework of this case, the aforementioned case has also been studied, as a result of which it has been established that such violations of rights have been made in the investigation of this case, as a result of which the adopted judicial act has distorted the essence of justice. In particular, the right to a fair investigation under Art. 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and Art. 17 the RA CPC has been violated. The charge against S. Ayvazyan is based on unacceptable evidence, and the guilty verdict is based on unverified testimonies of police officers.
Meanwhile, the European Court within the framework of the case of “Mushegh Saghatelyan v. Republic of Armenia”, referring also to decisions taken based on complaints not related to Armenia, expressed a legal position that “... the domestic courts have not used every opportunity to verify the testimonies of police officers. We can say that the confirmation of the variant of the events presented by the police, the refusal to examine the testimonies of witnesses from the defense part without proper study have led to the restriction of the rights of the defense part, which contradicts to the guarantees of a fair trial. ” (see the above mentioned mutatis mutandis, “Kasparov and others”, paragraph 66).
Based on the above-mentioned, the RA Prosecutor General Arthur Davtyan has turned to the RA Court of Cassation with a request to cancel and amend the judicial acts of January 27, 2009 of RA Criminal Court of Appeal, rendered on 19.11.2008 by the court of general jurisdiction of Kentron and Nork-Marash administrative districts of Yerevan city regarding Smbat Ayvazyan.
