Epress.am News from Armenia
The Artik penitentiary’s prisoner Artak Hakobyan (pictured) has presented a suit against the Nubarashen penitentiary former deputy warden, Davit Muradyan, for compensation of 1,700,000 AMD ($ 4,145) for the moral damages. Today, the preliminary court session of the case began at the Erebuni and Nubarashen District Court of First Instance, presided by judge Yerem Yesoyan.
Artak Hakobyan noted, that Davit Muradyan demanded and received a $14,000 and a 760 000 AMD ($18,500) bribe for an early release from prison, however, the prisoner’s application for early release to the investigative commission was rejected. Davit Muradyan was arrested in May of last year for receiving bribes. According to Hakobyan, during the trial of the bribery case Muradyan would threaten him and say abusive and offensive expressions to him, which resulted in Hakobyan’s emotional breakdown and attempted self-harm. The plaintiff wished to raise the issue of what Muradyan told him, but the judge asked him to leave that for the next court session, because, according to him, the court is clarifying the scope of the case during the preliminary hearings.
Davit Muradyan’s lawyer, Mnatsakan Ghazaryan, motioned to discontinue the administrative suit, because his client, the defendant, has a criminal case in the Court of Appeals. Yesoyan, however, rejected the motion on the grounds the fact that a criminal case is in the Court of Appeals is not mutually exclusive, because the plaintiff can present evidence for his claims.
During the court session, Epress.am journalist requested from the court to audio-visually record the court hearings, however, the defendant’s lawyer motioned the judge to reject the request, with the reasoning that he needs to council with his client, who was not present at the court. This was sufficient for the judge.
The next session will take place on November 28.