Epress.am News from Armenia
General Prosecutor’s office continues motions to the Court of Appeals to acquit persons indicted in 2008 for alleged “riots” or “violence against representatives of state” and similar offences that came after the crackdown of peaceful protests against rigged elections in 2008. In one of such cases, Isahak Malkhasyan is acquitted from a criminal offence of Article 316 of the Criminal Code, violence against the representative of the state.
Isahak was sentenced to 1 year of imprisonment, however he was released on probation. The court found it proven that Malkhasyan carried a cold weapon, a metal baton in his car, refused the order of the police officer to allow search of his car, resisted the actions of the policemen and applied violence against them.
General Prosecutor Artur Davtyan pointed out to a number of European Court for Human Rights rulings, including “M. Saghatelyan vs Armenia” in his appeal to the Court of Appeals and stated that Malkhasyan’s case showed that the essence of just trial was not followed, the indictment did not describe the offence in specificity, there were no victims of the offence, the court had rejected motions to bring in witnesses and based the judgement on the testimony of police officers only. The Court of Appeals has satisfied the appeal in entirety and has declared Malkhasyan innocent of the offences brought against him in 2008.