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Aghavni Eghiazaryan

Two Years On, No Resolution in the Najarian Case

The Armenian justice system has failed George and Carolann Najarian once again. On August 30, 2005, the Prosecutor General of the Republic of Armenia ended proceedings of the criminal case, citing the absence of any fraud on the part of Grigor Igityan. The Armenian-American couple had accused Igityan of the fraudulent misappropriation of their property (See alsoNajarians are now forced to take drastic actions).

"This court case just does not end; the process just keeps repeating itself in vain. We keep going backwards to a certain point each time. There is no constitutional guideline, you can have preliminary hearings ten separate times, but the sad fact is that nothing changes, every hearing turns out the same," said Hrayr Ghukasyan, the Najarians' lawyer.

What happened before the decision to end the proceedings was made was as follows. On May 18, 2005, the Prosecutor's Office restarted investigations into the case, and on May 19, George Najarian was recognized as the aggrieved party. On May 30, the Najarians representatives, Ashot Poghosyan and Hrayr Ghukasyan, presented two petitions - one asking that, as representatives of the claimant, they be involved in investigations into the case, and he other asking that Grigor Igityan, as the accused party, to be part of the legal proceedings.

"We wanted to get involved in the investigation because they were calling the witnesses to interrogations but discussing other issues with them. Then they would threaten them and tell them that each and every witness would be held responsible. That petition was rejected. The second petition was not, but it was as good as a rejection, because a decision on it was postponed till the establishment of certain essential conditions, but the conditions, of course, were not noted," explained Ghukasyan.

The decision not to include the Najarians' representatives in the investigations was made by Armen Nadiryan, Chief Investigator of Special Cases in the Prosecutor General's Office. The lawyers appealed against this decision to Nadiryan's superior, head of department Andranik Mirzoyan, but the appeal was rejected once more. The Najarians' representatives then turned to the court, but another rejection followed on August 16. Before they could appeal that decision in the Court of Review on August 31, the Prosecutor General closed the case on August 30, citing no evidence of fraud on the part of Igityan.

This time, the Najarians' lawyers have appealed the decision to close the case to a higher authority - the Head of the Department of Special Cases in the Prosecutor General's Office, Andranik Mirzoyan.

"We are following procedure. We will probably go to court again and try to prove that nothing was really accomplished over the last three-and-a-half months. In reality, there was very little to be done; the case had only to be set up correctly. It would be no exaggeration on my part to say that in light of the evidence at hand, they could settle this case within two weeks; they just don't want to do so. It would be a case of expressing good will, that's all. The prosecution simply does not want to close this case, and it is showing quite clearly that it doesn't want to do so," said Ghukasyan.

For two years now, the Najarians have been trying in vain to defend their rights in the courts of Armenia. They have appealed to the U.S. State Department, in accordance with the 1992 Bilateral Investment Treaty signed between Armenia and the USA.

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