Epress.am News from Armenia
For the third time this year, the European Court of Human Rights has found that a citizen’s right to a fair trial was violated in Armenia. The applicant, Gevor Dngikyan, had been deprived of his property on 19 Proshyan Str. in Yerevan – a land lot and a part of his house – where a restaurant was subsequently built. The Karandzav restaurant is still operating, and despite a 2003 Court of Appeal ruling establishing the violation of Dngikyan’s right to property, the Justice Ministry’s Judicial Acts Compulsory Enforcement Service (JACES) has yet to make the owners deconstruct the building.
“The implementation of the ruling is a part of a fair trial. If the ruling is not carried out, then what good are courts? Yes, this is mainly a ruling against the Enforcement Service’s inaction. It’s almost impossible not to deconstruct a building in the city center if there’s a corresponding court ruling,” Dngikyan’s lawyer, Tigran Atanesyan told Epress.am.
In his ECHR appeal, Dngikyan had estimated his material damages at 107 000 euros, but the Court has decided that Dngikyan should only receive a compensation for the violation of his right to a fair trial in the amount of 3600 euros.
Earlier this year, the ECHR had ruled that the JACES had violated Iranian citizen Avanes Avakemyan’s right to a fair trial by not implementing an Armenian court ruling in his favor. It’s noteworthy that Avakemyan’s dispute had been with Murad Guloyan, an in-law of Armenian tycoon Gagik Tsarukyan.
Robert Nikoghosyan, a former employee of the State Revenue Committee, won a ECHR complaint in late May. Armenian courts had previously ruled that the Committee had violated Nikoghosyan’s labor rights by unfairly dismissing him for his job. According to the former tax inspector, for a lengthy period JACES officials were not implementing the court ruling because they were being pressured by then-State Revenue Committee head Gagik Khachatryan.