Wrongfully Convicted Armenian Woman to Receive 4100 Euros from Government

The Armenian Government tomorrow will allocate 4100 euros from the reserve fund of the state budget to compensate a woman who was sentenced to 9 years’ imprisonment in 2007.

In 2007, Silva Asatryan was found guilty of the attempted murder of former National Assembly lawmaker Melik Gasparyan. Ten years later, the woman won a case against Armenia at the European Court of Human Rights, which ruled that the woman’s right to fair trial had been violated in the homeland and that the case should be reopened in order for the real perpetrator to be found.

In a previous conversation with Epress.am, Asatryan’s lawyer, Karen Mezhlumyan had said a 4100 euro compensation could not be considered an adequate compensation for the 7.5 years the woman spent behind bars. Mezhlumyan had added that he planned to first fight for the full acquittal of his client and then file a civil case for more compensation.

Note, the number of ECHR cases against Armenia has been rapidly growing over the past couple of years. According to the ECHR 2016 annual report, last year the Court received 753 complaints against Armenia, which by 6 times exceeds the number of applications submitted in 2015 (122).