This is the right word how the relations of the existing authorities towards former Ambassador of Armenia to the UN, former FM, and founder of “Civic Disobedience” movement Alexander Arzumanyan’s case can be described.
Just from the first look at the case it is becoming clear that the “known forces” have made a principal decision to detain Arzumanyan, and after detaining they have started thinking about what kind of accusations and allegations to bring up. To note, on May 7 Arzumanyan was arrested for alleged “laundry” of Levon Markos’s money, who is under search now. The police found $50 thousand in Arzumanyan’s apartment, which they say Arzumanyan had either laundered or was going to do so. In order to detain Arzumanyan they had to know two things for sure: the first one is to know that the money Arzumanyan has received is illegal, and, second, Arzumanyan knew about that fact upon receiving it. Following Arzumanyan’s arrest Alexander Aghazaryan, who resides in Moscow, announced that the mentioned money was sent by him as his friend had asked money from him. Following this announcement the Armenian police started investigating where Agazaryan’s money comes from and forgot about Levon Markos. However, this is not the funniest thing. The NSS has submitted petition to the court to prolong the term of Arzumanyan’s arrest for more two months (till November 7). According to Arzumanyan’s lawyer Hovik Arsenyan, the investigation group needs these two months for the purpose of going to Moscow and finding out whether A. Ghazaryan pays his tax obligations in a due manner and whether the money he sent to Arzumanyan was legal. Certainly, one may wander what happened to L. Markos. What happened to their allegation that Markos had illegal money and sent some of it to Arzumanyan? Where are their proofs? It is very funny since they have arrested Arzumanyan and now are asking the court to prolong the term of his arrest so that they can go to different places to look for illegal money and find out whether Arzumanyan is connected with such money or not. There are more strange things too. Yesterday the court of Kentron and Nork-Marash communities of Yerevan considered the NSS’s petition to prolong the term of Arzumanyan’s arrest for more two months. There were many of Arzumanyan’s friends, relatives and followers in the hall. Certainly, no one of them suspected that the court would satisfy that petition by all means; however, they had some hope for justice. At the end of the closed court session judge Rubik Nersisyan went to the neighboring discussion room and brought reward being unexpected for everyone. The court satisfied the NSS’s petition to prolong the term of Arzumanyan’s arrest for more two months. We wander why they did so and whether they had any legal grounds to bring up such decision. It turns out that they did it without any explanations. They just did it; they just satisfied the petition.
“This is absurd”
After the baseless decision of the court Arzumanyan’s lawyer Hovik Arsenyan said that he hadn’t seen anything like that anywhere. “These authorities are fully ignoring the profession of lawyers. I have never seen or heard about such illegal violence. The court made a decision to prolong the term of arrest without any explanation and legal grounds; indeed they know it very well that it is absurd and funny and there is no legal ground to keep Arzumanyan under arrest”, stressed Arsenyan. The latter believes that one day this case will be terminated due to lack of components of crime. Noting that the investigation group has prolonged the term of arrest for the purpose of going to Moscow and finding out whether Aghazaryan’s incomes are legal or not the lawyer said, “These are unproven suspects, and in case of unproven suspects no accusation can be brought. While there is no component of crime in the case it is alleged whether Arzumanyan’s actions are crime or not. It is clear they are not. His guiltiness has not been proven. Notwithstanding, they can’t ever have facts proving his guiltiness.” The lawyer says that in favor of a couple of officials they are compromising the entire judicial system and the court. Arsenyan is sure that Arzumanyan’s case has been stipulated by a political order. “I am going to ask Alexander Arzumanyan to discharge me as his lawyer since there are no legal bases here and it is not understandable what is going on. Everyone is saying and crying that this is absurd, but indeed they all put stamps starting from the investigating bodies”, said the lawyer. The lawyer is going to appeal the court’s decision, however he doesn’t hope for success. “There haven’t been such nonsense things during the administration period of these authorities. We have seen many cases, accusations, investigations, but anyhow they kept some objective sides, which is not done here at all. This is a new thing in this country. It sounds like this: “We are doing well; we are doing whatever we want and you have nothing to do here”. This is a challenge to the society’, said Hovik Arsenyan. There was a group of policemen near the court building, who were calmly listening to all what the people gathered there were saying concerning the “known forces”.