RA Prosecutor General Artur Davtyan launched a cassation appeal against the guilty verdicts rendered in 2009 regarding Vardan Jhangiryan.

 

By the verdict of 31.03.2009 the latter was pleaded guilty under Part 1 of Art. 316 of the RA Criminal Code. The court found it approved that on February 23, 2008 at around 23:00 during the disarmament and detention of armed people who were in “BMW X-5” car on Echmiadzin-Yerevan highway, he did not comply with the lawful request of the police officer, drove the car in their direction and crashed into a police car, did not fulfill the requirement to present the firearms in his possession, damaged the police uniform, punched police officer in the face, causing injuries.

 

By the verdict V. Jhangiryan was sentenced to 3 years of imprisonment, the imposed punishment was not conditionally applied, and a probation period of 3 years was set.

 

The defense side appealed the verdict in 2009 in the RA Criminal Court of Appeal, which rejected the appeal, upheld the decision of the court of general jurisdiction, and V. Jhangiryan was released by the amnesty order. And the complaint launched by the defense side against the said decision of the RA Criminal Court of Appeal was returned on the basis of the lack of grounds for acceptance into proceedings.

 

The RA Prosecutor General's Office, in the light of the legal positions expressed in case “M. Saghatelyan vs Armenia” and resolutions of the ECHR on cases related to other countries, domestic case law and resolution of the Court of Cassation of the Republic of Armenia N ԵԿԴ/0134/01/08 of 18.09.2019 regarding Gagik Jhangiryan studied the verdict, materials of the criminal case regarding V. Jhangiryan. It was found out that in the course of judicial investigations by these cases, fundamental violations of procedural law and a judicial mistake were made, as a result of which the adopted judicial acts are illegal and unreasonable and distort the essence of justice.

 

In particular, courts of lower instances, substantiating the charge against V. Jhangiryan, gave an important role to the testimonies of the police officers and could not properly assess their active participation in the events.

 

The factual circumstances of the case were not properly studied and assessed, and in the criminal case there was no sufficient combination of reliable evidence that would allow considering the fact of committing acts incriminated to V. Jhangiryan to be proven.

 

Based on the above circumstances, the RA Prosecutor General Artur Davtyan turned to the RA Court of Cassation with a request to reject and change the judicial acts rendered in 2009 regarding V. Jhangiryan, recognize his innocence in the act incriminated to him.

 

The RA Prosecutor General’s Office continues to study the verdicts rendered during 2008-2009 in connection with the events during the presidential election of 2008 and cases related to them.