Court of Cassation Rejects Appeal to Overturn Verdict of a Dead Soldier’s Case

On March 5, the Court of Cassation rejected Hovsep Muradyan's appeal, father of soldier Arman Muradyan who died in Nagorno-Karabakh in 2013, to overturn the verdict of the Court of First Instance.

Muradyan was notified of the court's decision yesterday, March 11th. The basis of the rejection was that the father had prepared the appeal himself. The Court of Cassation noted that according to the law, the appeal should have been sent to the Court of Cassation by a lawyer and not the victim's successor.

A Stepanakert court issued the verdict to Arman Muradyan’s case without the presence of and providing information about the verdict to the defendant’s successors. Hovsep Muradyan stated multiple times that he does not trust the preliminary investigation’s position of his son committing suicide, which was also rejected by the military expert Ruben Martirosyan. According to the verdict, Major Emil Avetisyan was sentenced to 6 years imprisonment for subjecting his superior or colleague to violence,  injuring or abusing his powers during his service.

Since Muradyan was informed about the verdict very late, he did not have the opportunity to meet the 30-day deadline to appeal to the Court of Appeal. The plaintiffs appealed to extend the deadline, however that demand was also rejected. Arman Muradyan’s parents demanded that the proceedings of their son’s case be convened on the territory of Armenia. This demand was rejected by the Syunik Court of Universal Jurisdiction. According to the official justification, the hearings were convened at the Syunik Court of Universal Jurisdiction’s Stepanakert Division.