Epress.am News from Armenia
Arabkir and Kanaker-Zeytun district court judge Marine Melkonyan yesterday did not show up for the hearing of the appeal filed by Gohar Sargsyan and Suren Ohanjanyan against prosecutor's and investigator's decision to dismiss the proceedings into their son Tigran Ohanjanyan's death.
20 minutes after the scheduled hearing time, Melkonyan's assistant, Zhanna Kotsinyan, said standing at the door of the courtroom that the hearing was being postponed since they had received a notification about the applicants refusing to take part in it.
“Why would we appeal and not show up to the hearing?” Suren Ohanjanyan said in response to the assistant's statement.
A few minutes after Kotsinyan's message, the parents were nevertheless invited to the courtroom, where they were informed that the hearing could not take place since the judge was in the deliberation room for another case. As for the previous statement regarding the applicants refusal to show up, the assistant claimed there had been a “misunderstanding,” and the actual notification had come from the prosecutor. In addition, Kotsinyan said, the investigator was also unable to participate in the hearing since “he is away on leave.”
“They are basically doing whatever they want and deliberately delaying the process. Why didn't the prosecutor come? Why is the investigator on leave? Where is the judge? Why couldn't they have informed us about the adjournment beforehand?” Gohar Sargsyan said irritably.