Epress.am News from Armenia
Today, Administrative Court Judge Ruzanna Hakobyan asked activist Vardges Gaspari to leave the courtroom after Gaspari did not stand following the customary expression “All rise”.
The judge said that the sanction, which had also been implemented months ago, during the first session, would be in power for 32 hours. At the first session the presiding judge not only asked Gaspari to leave, but also charged him with a criminal case. Note, that all of Gaspari’s 12 administrative, 2 civil, and one criminal case are still in process.
Today, the activist refused to leave the courtroom, and they forcefully took him out of court. Gaspari laid down in front of the courthouse for about 2 hours as a form of protest.
He noted that his protest was not directed toward the Armenian media but rather the Armenian courts.
“I am expressing my protest against Armenian courts like this. I am doing this to remind that 49 out of 52 cases at the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) against the Republic of Armenia have concluded in favor of the plaintiffs. And the demands of the verdicts, basically, caused by the (Armenian) court’s mistakes, are being paid by Armenian citizen’s tax money,” said Gaspari.
He stressed that the treatment he has received does not bother him, because “the people out on March 1st were shot down for demanding justice.”
“This is insignificant compared to those people who lost their family members,” said Gaspari.
Note, that today’s court session continued without Gaspari’s presence. The case was charged back in 2013, for a registered incident during a protest in front of the Pak Shuka. Gaspari’s poster had been stolen, during the case it was revealed that it was oligarch, MP Samvel Aleksanyan who stole it, however, as the activist stresses, the case immediately began against him.
During an earlier court session, Gaspari was also sanctioned by Judge Artsrun Mirzoyan for not standing up in court.
Video in Armenian only