Yesterday, as reported by Hetq, the RA Court of Appeals threw out the appeal filed by Serop Der-Boghossian in which the American-Armenian businessman sought to overturn a lower court’s decision convicted of paedophilia and sentenced him to 15 years.

Rumors had circulated that health problems might lead to some sort of mitigation of the sentence. This wasn’t the case even though Der-Boghossian was transferred to the court from a prison hospital.

Prosecutor Hovsep Sargsyan told Hetq that during the closed door session, Der-Boghossian looked normal but he couldn’t say whether or not the convict was truly suffering from some illness.

Sargsyan said the prosecution had not been provided any documentation to the effect that Der-Boghossian was gravely ill and could thus avoid carrying out his sentence.

Prosecutor Aram Amirzadyan told Hetq after the trial that the defense continued to claim that Der-Boghossian was innocent of the specified charges and that ample proof had never been presented during the lower court’s trial.

The prosecution expects that Der-Boghossian will take his appeal to the Court of Cassation.