RA Human Rights Defender`s Office comments on lawyer`s arrest

ArmInfo.The Office of the Human Rights Defender of the Republic of Armenia commented on the arrest of lawyer Alexander Kochubaev.

On October 16, the Office of the Human Rights Defender received  information about the arrest of lawyer Alexander Kochubaev for public  statements made on his Facebook page.  It was later reported that a  criminal case had been opened against the lawyer under Part 2 of  Article 490 of the RA Criminal Code, and he had been sentenced to two  months' detention.

"Human Rights Defender Anahit Manasyan has repeatedly stated that  illegal public statements are widespread among representatives of  various professional communities, including the legal community,  emphasizing that rules of ethics and conduct for professional  communities should not only be established, but should be  consistently applied. There are serious problems in the Republic of  Armenia, since the disciplinary mechanisms in place in communities  are practically not applied to widespread statements that contradict  the rules of ethics and conduct and modern human rights standards. At  the same time, the Human Rights Defender considers the logic  according to which any such statement can entail criminal liability  unacceptable. According to international standards, only the most  serious types of illegal statements and the presence of compelling  grounds can entail criminal liability, and especially when a  preventive measure or a prison sentence can be applied to a person.  Therefore, the Human Rights Defender considers it unacceptable to  persecute individuals for statements in conditions where the public  is not provided with adequate information about why, in a particular  case, the statements crossed the threshold of such seriousness. "The  question of public danger and why a person should be deprived of  their liberty is particularly problematic in situations of forced  imprisonment. While not addressing the legality of pretrial detention  in a specific case or cases, Human Rights Defender Anahit Manasyan  has repeatedly emphasized the systemic problems associated with the  practice of using pretrial detention as a preventive measure. In this  context, the Defender reiterates her position that when choosing  pretrial detention as a preventive measure, the criteria for its  legality must be strictly observed, given that pretrial detention may  only be used in cases where alternative preventive measures are  insufficient to prevent the accused from fleeing or committing a new  crime," the Ombudsman's office stated.

The office emphasized that abuse of pretrial detention, in turn,  could seriously damage trust in the entire criminal justice system  and lead to other systemic problems.

The Human Rights Ombudsman initiated discussion of this issue on his  own initiative. At the direction of the Human Rights Ombudsman,  representatives of the Human Rights Ombudsman visit penal  institutions to meet with lawyers and conduct personal interviews.  This matter falls under the direct purview of the Ombudsman.