Epress.am News from Armenia
The General Jurisdiction Court of Arabkir and Kanaker-Zeytun administrative districts, presided over by judge Levon Avetisyan, ruled Friday, October 2, that the decision of Armenia's Special Investigation Service not to initiate criminal proceedings against ruling Republican Party MP Arakel Movsisyan was legally justified.
The appeal against the SIS' decision had been filed by human rights defender and Head of Helsinki Citizens' Assembly Vanadzor office Artur Sakunts who claims that elements of a criminal offence were present in Movsisyan's summer statements in which he had threatened “to decapitate and rape” those who talk negatively of Armenian Defense Minister Seyran Ohanyan and his family members.
“Those bastards are not so much at fault as their fathers, who must be found and beheaded, because their families, apparently, don't know what a family, a home is […] God willing, I will personally catch and behead them. I urge them to stay put because if, God forbid, they are caught, they’ll most definitely be raped,” Movsisyan had, in particular, said.
Based on a report filed by Sakunts, the SIS prepared materials on the incident; however, the investigative body subsequently decided not to launch a criminal case since, according to authorities, there were no elements of death threat, threats of causing grievous bodily harm, or damage to property (RA Criminal Code Article 137) present in the Republican lawmaker's statements.