Anti-Corruption Court Judge Sargis Petrosyan rejected a motion by the defense lawyers of Armenia’s third president, Serzh Sargsyan, to dismiss the criminal case against him. At the same time, the court lifted the preventive measure in force since Aug. 26 — a prohibition on leaving.
At the previous court hearing, Sargsyan’s lawyers filed a motion seeking dismissal of the criminal case, Sputnik Armenia reported.
“Article 68 of the Constitution prohibits bringing charges again for the same act, while Part 2 says that if newly discovered circumstances exist, or if fundamental shortcomings occurred during the examination of the case that could have affected its outcome, proceedings may be initiated. But now there are no new facts; there is merely disagreement with the previous legal assessment. Serzh Sargsyan is now being accused of something for which the prosecutor previously terminated the proceedings,” lawyer Amram Makinyan argued at the previous hearing.
At the Oct. 2 hearing, the court noted that the prosecutor had stated in the indictment that the Defense Ministry had not been informed about the previous court proceedings and therefore could not appeal, and that it filed an appeal after becoming aware of them.
Lawyer Amram Makinyan objected, stressing that the Defense Ministry had no procedural status in the criminal case.
“If the Defense Ministry was not a party to the proceedings in any capacity, why should it have been informed about them?” the lawyer continued.
The court stated that at this stage it was not examining whether the Defense Ministry was a party to the proceedings. It was also noted that the new circumstance should be taken into account if the Defense Ministry had been properly informed. According to the court’s assessment, the prosecution did not point to a new circumstance but stated that the Defense Ministry had legitimate interests in the case.
