Yesterday the first Instance Court of Erebuni and Noubarashen Administrative Districts sentenced Levon Avagyan, teacher of Noubarashen boarding school #11 charged with sexual harassment, to two years of imprisonment. Avagyan is charged with Article 142 of the Criminal Code of Armenia – sexual violence against underage children of the same school. The latter had admitted having sexually and physically abused his students, to only two years in prison. In the internal and external political mess this criminal case was kind of pushed backward in terms of importance. However, in any normal country this court trail would raise a big noise as well as the verdict, which was terrifying. Of course, in Armenia hardly anybody trusts the courts here. In this case, however the matter is not the independence of the judicial system. It is no secret that the courts of Armenia reconcile even the most minor cases with the top authorities. So we can confidently say that this verdict was no exception either especially by taking into account the fact that certain noise was made in this regard. It means that yesterday’s verdict is linked with the “taste” of the government to a certain extent. In our country people go to jail for 5-7 years but the pedophiles are sentenced only to 2 years of imprisonment. Thus, during yesterday’s court trial the contents of the posters of the protesters, which read, "The country tolerates pedophiles," "Green light to pedophiles," "We demand life imprisonment" related not only to Avagyan and the judge.
