Chief editor of “Zhamanak Yerevan” Arman Babajanyan was arrested on June 26, 2006 after being accused of presenting false documents with the purpose of escaping military service. The court decided to keep him locked up until the end of the trial. Meanwhile, A. Babajanyan had applied to the Defense Ministry of Armenia with the request that the Ministry apply the law according to which males who have turned 27 and have evaded military service during the years of 1993 and 2005 are freed of criminal persecution in exchange of payment. A. Babajanyan made that payment. But the Defense Ministry commission left his letter with no response until now. The ministry probably waited to hear the verdict of the appeal court. On Friday, the appeal court for Criminal and military cases decided to continue the trial without any attorneys despite the fact that Babajanyan’s attorneys Hayk Alumyan and Zaruhi Postanjyan had intervened to postpone the trial. They had asked to postpone the trial until the Defense Ministry commission studies Babajanyan’s request and makes a decision. However, Judge Arshak Khachatryan not only rejected the solicitation, but also started and ended the trial without the presence of attorneys. This means that the appeal court deprived Babajanyan of the chance to have an attorney during the trial. The court also deprived him of the chance to say his final word at the Appeal court. A. Babajanyan refused to say his last word without the presence of his attorneys. He even renounced his attorneys and asked for time to get new attorneys. But Judge Arshak Khachatryan didn’t give him that opportunity. The court was demanded to reach a verdict in one and half hour. After a long consultation, the court decided to reduce the number of years of imprisonment by half a year and sentenced Babajanyan to 3.5 years instead of four. Meanwhile, the court has not sentenced anyone for the same accusation for more than two years. The decision was in effect right when the verdict was reached. Babajanyan will most probably protest file another complaint to the Cassation Court. However, based on the reforms of the judicial legislation, it’s quite possible that the Cassation Court doesn’t investigate the complaint. What, does the Cassation Court decide which complaint to examine? I would just like to recall that a couple of years ago Aghamal Harutyunyan (Robert Kocharyan’s bodyguard “Kuku”) was only sentenced to one year in prison for killing Poghos Poghosyan at the “Aragast” café.
