Mr. Harutyun Urutyan, who headed the Levon Ter-Petrosyan campaign headquarters in the Ani district in the Marz of Shirak, has been sentenced to 7 years imprisonment.

The Chief Prosecutor of the ROA has stated that on Election Day, February 19th, at around 2 p.m. in the 36/34 polling station in the town of Maralik, Mr. Urutyan, in the presence of witnesses, beat and caused bodily injury to Suren Avetisyan, a proxy of Serzh Sargsyan, thus preventing him from carrying out his authorized functions.

On March 13th Judge Harutyun Movsisyan of the Northern Criminal Court passed sentence. During the proceedings Mr. Urutyan made the following statement, “The authorities do not recognize any law. They do as they please regarding our citizens. I actively participated in the battles to defend the country’s border regions. Now, it appears that I made a mistake because we are building the wrong government. We don’t see the stability of that government nor do we hear the free voice of the people. It’s all the same. I say the yogurt is white and the respected judge claims it’s black. For seven straight days we’ve proved my innocence. My words fall on deaf ears and it’s futile to continue. Regardless of what I say, I will receive the same sentence that was already agreed upon twenty days ago.”

Tamara Hayloyan, Mr. Urutyan’s lawyer, stated in court that the defense had cited several passages of the law and being familiar with the imperfect aspects of our domestic statutes, also quoted the decisions of the European Court and passages from the European Convention on Human Rights. She noted that, “All this has proven useless and we now call on the mercy of the court.”

At the completion of the proceedings the accused, Mr. Urutyan, was supposed to make a final statement but was unable to due to ill health and requested an adjournment. The emergency health personnel on the scene were unable to lower his blood pressure. During all of this Judge Movsisyan intervened on several occasions and resumed the proceedings. The judge continually attempted to get Mr. Urutyan to make his closing remarks or to have him forfeit his right to do so.

Mr. Urutyan, who didn’t want to forfeit this right, said, “I can’t make a statement since I feel ill.” To this the judge queried, “Can’t you even say a few words?”

Regarding the conduct of the presiding judge, Attorney Tamara Hayloyan cited the 3rd Point of the European Convention and declared that the defendant was being subjected to cruel and inhumane treatment.

Finally, Judge Harutyun Movsisyan repeated to demand that the defendant make a statement, arguing that the physicians had declared Mr. Urutyan fit to do so. The Judge then declared that the defendant had waived his right to make a closing statement thus, in effect, depriving him of that right.

At the end of the court session, and without giving any forewarning, Judge Movsisyan read out the sentence. Neither the Prosecuting Attorney nor the aggrieved party, Suren Avetisyan, was present for this reason.

During the preceding session the prosecution had requested that Urutyan be sentenced to 8 years. However the Northern Criminal Court found Harutyun Urutyan guilty according to Article 149, Section 2, Point 3 and Article 112, Section 2, Point 2 of the ROA Criminal Code. (Article 112 deals with ‘Causing premeditated injury to another’s well being).

The defendant was sentenced to 2 years on Article 149 and 6 years on Article 112. In the end, he was sentenced to a total of 7 years jail time.

K. T.