Thursday, August 5 2021 18:04

ArmInfo.The Criminal Court of Appeal in Yerevan, chaired by Mnatsakan Autyunyan, upheld the decision of the court of first instance of July 16 on the use of  arrest as a preventive measure against the mayor of Goris Arush  Arushanyan.

To note, the defense's petition was considered by the court in the  absence of lawyers. On August 2, Arush Arushanyan's lawyer Erik  Aleksanyan demanded that Judge Harutyunyan recuse himself in the case  of his client. The reason for filing a petition for self-recusal was  the fact that Arushanyan's case was sent to the judge not through the  electronic system, but "manually". According to the defender, earlier  the NSS seized the server of the Judicial Department in another  criminal case, which is why the acting  head of the Supreme Judicial  Council sent the case not by mail. "As soon as the cases of the heads  of Syunik communities arrive at the Court of Appeal, the NSS conducts  searches and seizes the servers, as a result of which the cases are"  manually "transferred to one judge or another. This is at least  strange," he said. In his opinion, it was not by chance that the case  was sent to Judge Mnatsakan Harutyunyan, "a person who is not able to  make objective decisions." As a result, after the request for  self-recusation was rejected, the defense side decided to boycott  further proceedings and left the courtroom, stating that it did not  trust the judge.  

To recall, mayor of Goris, Arush Arushanyan, who was included in the  electoral list of the "Hayastan' bloc headed by the 2nd RA President  Robert Kocharian, was charged under paragraph 2 of part 4 of Article  35- 154.2, paragraph 4 of part 2 of Article 38- 149 and part 3 of  article 38-154.2. Earlier, the SIS reported that Arushanyan met with  the head of the Karahunj community Lusine Avetyan a few days before  the early elections and offered material assistance to those voters  who promised to vote for the bloc. L.A. refused, the planned crime  was not brought to an end due to circumstances beyond Arushanyan's  control.  

It was reported that on April 28 L.A. at the request of Arushanyan,  organized a meeting with residents who asked for help in solving  their problems. Then the City Hall of Goris transferred 100,000 -  220,000 AMD.  Arushanyan is charged with obstructing the free  expression of the will of citizens, using his service dependency to  vote in favor of the above-mentioned bloc. So, he instructed L.A.  head the campaign headquarters in Karahunj and pool resources for  campaigning in favor of the "Armenia"(Hayastan) bloc.  Taking  advantage of the vulnerable position of voters, L.A.  forced them to  vote in favor of the bloc.  On July 15 this year the Central Election  Commission (CEC) supported the petitions of the prosecutor's office  to initiate a criminal case against the head of the Goris community  and to agree to his imprisonment.