Gagik Sarukhanyan urges everyone to go to court to support Hayk Kyureghyan (video)
A court in Yerevan is scheduled to announce its ruling in the case of Hayk Kyureghyan, who is charged with hooliganism and using force against a representative of the state, on Tuesday, July 21. Kyureghyan was detained following an incident that occurred on July 12, 2014 before a trial of opposition Tsekhakron Party leader Shant Haroutyunyan and his friends. The young man climbed atop a car in a court yard and shot an air pistol off several times in the direction of the police to protest the way political trials are handled in Armenia. He is charged under Articles 258 and 316 of the Armenian Criminal Code. Kyureghyan hasn’t been attending his court cases. The judge decided that Hayk showed disrespect for the court and had him removed from the hall in one of the court sittings. Armen Bektashyan, the judge in the case, has banned his presence ever since Kyureghyan refused to stand when the bailiff announced “All rise!” “If he does not stand up, it means he does not respect Court. In fact, the defendant was deprived of the right to defend himself. Can you force a person to respect Court?” said Gagik Sarukhanyan, Head of the Rights and Support Foundation. He says the judge orders to remove from the hall everyone who dares to express an opinion. “Let the judge avoid arousing resentment. He [Bektashyan] says, ‘Sit still like a chicken and do not utter a word.” Judge Armen Bektashyan also removed from the courtroom Nelly Harutyunyan, a representative of the Helsinki Committee of Armenia NGO, for smiling during the trial. Gagik Sarukhanyan urges everyone to go to the Court of General Jurisdiction of Yerevan’s Kenton and Nork Marash administrative districts on Tuesday to support Hayk. At the same time he reminds that in normal countries Hayk would be set free after paying a fixed fine, but in Armenia Hayk faces up to 10 years in prison.
