Epress.am News from Armenia
Syunik Province Court President Samvel Grigoryan has still not responded to the Ombudman’s petition and the Court of Appeal's request to respond to the father of dead soldier Arman Muradyan’s appeals. Epress.am was informed about the status of the appeals by Muradyan’s father, Hovsep Muradyan.
The Ombudsman office applied to the court to observe the discussions about convening Muradyan’s case at the Universal Court of the Syunik Marz. Presently, the trial is convening in the court of the unrecognized Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh’s capital Stepanakert, while official documents state that the trial is convening in the “Syunik Universal Jurisdiction Court’s Stepanakert Residence.” According to Hovsep Muradyan’s letter to the Ombudsman, he noted that the court’s president received the father’s appeal and should have responded to it with a 5-day deadline.
“Already 10 days have passed and I haven’t received any letter, no rejection, no adoption, no justification for their silence. I’m preparing to discuss our next steps with the Ombudsman office’s lawyers,” said Muradyan.
He noted that the Court of Appeals presented the demand to the Syunik Court to discuss the appeal nearly 3 weeks ago, however, there was no response to the appeal either, whereas according to official protocol, a response was supposed to be given in 15 days. Muradyan has appealed multiple times to the Ombudsman, and the Judicial Department to transfer his son’s case to Armenia.
The judicial department had rejected the demand a number of times, on the reasoning that the court has the right to convene trials outside the country, (although within its administrative jurisdiction.)
The 20-year old soldier Arman Muradyan died on July 30, 2013, in a military base in Mardakert, NKR. In accordance to the preliminary investigation the soldier committed suicide, which Muradyan’s parents say are baseless and a lie. A few sessions of the case had convened in the Stepanakert court without informing the Muradyans.