Back in April, “168 Hours”, “Haykakan Zhamanak” and “Aravot” newspapers had touched upon the protest of the residents of the Norashen village in Ararat Marz. The protest was aimed towards the illegal acts committed by judge and head of the first instance court of the Avan and Nor Nork communities Samvel Uzunyan.
The residents were even ready to hold a meeting in front of the Cassation court building. It is worth mentioning that Samvel Uzunyan was the presiding judge for the trial on the “October 27” tragic events.
Twenty-two year old Sargis Soghomonyan, resident of the Norashen village, kidnapped his girlfriend with her consent. The girl’s mother, who is head of Uzunyan’s administration, didn’t like this at all. According to Soghomonyan’s lawyer, Tigran Atanesyan, Uzunyan had wanted to help his administration leader. So, he invited Sargis to his office and beat him with a weapon. After the threats, the girl’s mother forced her daughter to come home and file a complaint to the police the next day. Soghomonyan was arrested on March 22. Residents of the village claimed that the two had been going out for quite a while. They said that they knew the girl because Soghomonyan had invited her to his house a couple of times. According to our sources, on May 25, 2006, the etiquette committee of the board of court judges had examined the bad etiquette of the Avan and Nor Nork communities’ first instance court judge Samvel Uzunyan. The articles printed in the newspaper served as a firm basis for the examination. During the discussion at the etiquette board, S. Uzunyan said that he had never seen Soghomonyan, thus he couldn’t have beaten him. The fact that Uzunyan had beaten Soghomonyan was denied by the Shengavit, as well as Erebuni and Nubarashen community prosecutor offices. At first sight, it looked as if the issue had finally been put up for discussion and that the courts are not indifferent towards the violations committed by this or that judge. But let’s not forget that Uzunyan is not “just a judge”; he is the judge that presided the trial of the “October 27” events. This means that he will remain untouchable with the help of the “October 27” trial for a long time. The etiquette committee of the board of court judges came to the conclusion that there is no basis for the facts printed in the press articles and the Avan and Nor Nork community first instance court judge Samvel Uzunyan hasn’t violated the rules of etiquette. What’s interesting is that the same etiquette committee gave some “good advice” to Uzunyan to refrain from giving interviews to journalists.
Recently, a lot is being said about making reforms in the judicial system. It’s a good thing that judicial branch officials breaking the rules of etiquette are paid attention to. But can the committee really become a committee capable of criticizing the behavior of its “colleagues” and “teaching them a lesson”, just like in Uzunyan’s case, who was simply given some friendly advice? Only time will show if Uzunyan “learned his lesson”.