The Court of Appeal decided today to dismiss the complaint of the Civiltas Foundation, leaving the general jurisdiction court's ruling unchanged. Civiltas had requested that the May 5 decision of the RA National Security Service on opening a criminal case on a charge of money laundering be revoked.
Judge Henrik Ter-Adamyan said that the court of first instance had made a legal and well-founded decision. The court dismissed the Civilitas Foundation's complaint due to the lack of sufficient grounds. Following the announcement of the court ruling, lawyer of the Civilitas Foundation Arthur Grigoryan said that they are going to appeal to the Cassation Court.
"If the Cassation Court also dismisses our complaint, then we together with the head of the Civilitas Foundation and other interested persons will consider the issue of appealing to an international court," the lawyer noted.
He did not rule out that when applying to an international court, Civilitas will demand compensation of moral damage as well. "The good name of the Civilitas Foundation has been damaged by all this," Arthur Grigoryan explained.
He did not rule out that the mentioned decision may be followed by the process of stripping Vartan Oskanyan of his immunity. "It has been repeatedly said that the trial has some elements of political persecution, and we are becoming increasingly sure of that".
It is noteworthy that the defendant was not present in the court today.
