Epress.am News from Armenia
Administrative Court Judge Robert Sargsyan’s authority was suspended by President Serzh Sargsyan’s decree an Friday, March 6th. Last year, Judge Sargsyan issued favorable verdicts on three cases of citizen activists against the police. The activists considered the verdicts unexpected.
The administrative proceedings were related to three cases between police and citizens who had organized a sit-in in front of the Yerevan City Hall in 2013 after the protest movement against the raising of public transportation fees to 150 from 100 drams.
In August 2013, the activists demanded the dismissals of the Yerevan Municipality Transportation Department head Henrik Navasardyan and Yerevantrans company president Misak Hambardzumyan. During the sit-in, police took a dozen citizens into custody. A sit-in participant Vahagn Minasyan was taken into custody and kept for 3 hours.
Police demanded the court make Minasyan give compensation of 50,000 AMD, while the defendant (Minasyan) countered with his own suit. Judge Robert Sargsyan found the police actions unlawful, rejected the compensation demand, and demanded 200,000 AMD compensation for Minasyan in the verdict.
Robert Sargsyan also handed a favorable verdict toward Suren Sahakyan. Police demanded in court 50,000 AMD in compensation from Sahakyan. Judge Sargsyan once again rejected the demand, found the police actions unlawful and issued a verdict in favor of Sahakyan, compensating him with 150,000 AMD
The Judge also rejected the police suit against Babken Der-Grigorian and considered the police actions unlawful.
Epress.am spoke to Suren Sahakyan about Sargsyan’s suspension; “At least for me, Robert Sargsyan made a surprising decision against the police. I was shocked, why, if there was no pressure from the ‘upper echelons’, do all the other cases turn out differently?”
Babken Der-Grigorian raised a question on his personal Facebook page, wondering, if Sargsyan’s authority was suspended because of his favorable verdicts toward the activists.