Supreme Court of Karelia will consider legality of finding Mihran  Poghosyan under house arrest

ArmInfo. The court in Petrozavodsk released the former chief bailiff of Armenia, Mihran Poghosyan, from the pretrial detention facility under house arrest in  a rented apartment, stolicaonego.ru. reports.

To recall, Poghosyan was detained on April 19 in Karelia at the  request of the Armenian side on charges of embezzlement and abuse of  authority.

According to the publication, Mihran Poghosyan was detained in the  Karelian capital, where he lived in the apartment of one of his  acquaintances. But already on April 23, the Petrozavodsk City Court  arrested him for 40 days, and Poghosyan was placed in correctional  colony No. 9. Shortly before the expiration of Poghosyan's detention,  the prosecutor's office sent a petition to the city court to extend  the arrest of the former chief court enforcement officer of Armenia  for up to six months. At the same time, Mikhail Yamchitsky,  Pogosyan's lawyer, filed a petition for house arrest for his client.  As a result, on May 24, Judge Anton Levkin appointed Poghosyan to  house arrest for the same six months.

However, the city Prosecutor's office, according to one of the  representatives of the supervisory authority, "fundamentally  disagreed with such a decision of the court because of its  groundlessness."

"The man is wanted, and for some reason the court assigns him house  arrest," said a spokesman for the Prosecutor's office.

Nevertheless, in fulfillment of the court decision, on May 28,  Poghosyan was released from prison, and now he lives in Petrozavodsk  in a rented apartment, only with electronic "bracelets" on his leg.  At the same time, the court ruling on house arrest of Poghosyan did  not enter into legal force, and if the Supreme Court of Karelia  canceled it, the former chief bailiff of Armenia would obviously have  to return to the pre-trial detention center.

"The Prosecutor General's Office, where all these cases are under  constant control, deals with extradition from Russia of those accused  of committing crimes of foreign citizens," one of the recent leading  prosecutors of the republic told our publication. "At the request of  the state that requests the extradition of its citizens, the Russian  courts as a rule, such people are first arrested for three months,  and if required, up to six months. The Karelian courts, including the  Petrozavodsk courts, were always detained in such cases, For example,  the citizens of Central Asia, Moldova, Belarus and other countries.  But house arrest has never been applied to them. "

In this regard, the interlocutor called the house arrest of a former  high-ranking official Poghosyan arrested by the Armenian court in  absentia by our interlocutor as "an unprecedented case and  lawlessness.  Mihran Poghosyan's lawyer, Mikhail Yamchitsky, has now  declined to comment on the case.

Previously, he informed our publication that his principal had  arrived in the republic for only a few days.  According to  Yamchitsky, Mihran Poghosyan was put on the international wanted  list, while he officially left Armenia with a diplomatic passport,  and in Russia he immediately applied for political asylum.

"The assumptions that he tried to hide himself seem to me to be  far-fetched. - Circumstances in the case suggest that there is also a  political component in it. Mihran Poghosyan, in fact, is a political  refugee.  Political persecution inside Armenia led to that he was  forced to leave the country for his own safety, "the lawyer said

The publication also informs that allegedly this week the Supreme  Court of Karelia will render a verdict regarding the appeal of the  decision to change the preventive measure in respect of Mihran  Poghosyan.

Today, a number of Armenian media also reported that the Russian side  granted Poghosyan the right to temporary residence in the country.