ArmInfo. Without a lawyer, I intend to personally take part in the court hearings on the suit initiated by Arayik Harutyunyan. Director of the Armenian Center for National and Strategic Studies Manvel Sargsyan told ArmInfo.
According to the analyst, there are big disagreements on the issue of authority and competence of Artsakh courts to conduct proceedings against Armenian citizens. In addition, it is noticeable that this circumstance is deftly used by those in power for not entirely conscientious purposes.
"Therefore, it is reasonable that everyone knows about all the iniquities that are committed in my respect. In the end, all this concerns not only me. Any Armenian citizen may face such illegal processes. A situation when a citizen of one country is a defendant before the court of another country is absurd and illegal. Suppose someone doesn't like what a Georgian citizen said at a seminar in Tbilisi, should he be sent to another country and be judged there?, "the analyst asked a rhetorical question.
On March 25, the incumbent president of Artsakh, Arayik Harutyunyan, filed a lawsuit in the Artsakh court against Manvel Sargsyan. The reason for the lawsuit was the statements made by the latter in December last year at the Yerevan seminar. The essence of the statements came down to accusing Harutyunyan of robbery, distributing actual election bribes at Artsakh weddings and funerals. Artsakh President demands from Sargsyan a refutation of his own words, apologies and reimbursement of his legal expenses.
The Artsakh court of first instance did not accept Harutyunyan's complaint, substantiating that the lawsuit was addressed to a citizen of another country. On April 3, Harutyunyan's representative appealed to the Artsakh Court of Appeal. The latter examined and accepted the case on April 16, when Harutyunyan already became President of Artsakh. On April 22, the Court of Appeal quashed the decision of the court of first instance. The preliminary hearing of the case in the Artsakh Court of first instance is scheduled for July 3.
According to the analyst, such a court dispute is notable in itself and reflects the legal discord mentioned by him in relations between the Republic of Armenia and Artsakh. Moreover, according to him, Sargsyan learned of all these inter-judicial vicissitudes only on June 4, when it was already too late to protest the decision of the Artsakh Court of Appeal by law. This happened because all the documents were sent to the address of his apartment in Yerevan. Meanwhile, Sargsyan was absent and a month later all letters returned to Artsakh. In this regard, the analyst is preparing a complaint to the Artsakh Supreme Court. Sargsyan is convinced of the violation of his rights, since he was not informed in time about the lawsuit or the decision of the courts of two instances.
"I am convinced that Harutyunyan was so insulted by my support of his rival Masis Mayilyan in the recent election rather than by the accusations against him. In any case, there is a lot of indirect evidence that this is the case. In fact, I, like any normal specialist, am not interested in personalities. I'm interested in the political situation in Artsakh in general. Based on my own research, I wrote 6 analytical articles on the topic of the presidential and parliamentary elections in Artsakh, " Sargsyan concluded.