Four trial attorneys representing arrested opposition members have refused to be granted amnesty and avoid punishment for what the Armenian authorities call a contempt of court.
Three of the lawyers defended an employee of a well-known opposition businessman controversially accused of tax evasion, while the other represented the interests of one of the opposition figures arrested following the 2008 post-election unrest in Yerevan. In two separate incidents, they walked out of the courtrooms in protest against what they say were illegal decisions taken by the presiding judges against their clients.
The judges construed those actions as a “disrespectful attitude towards the court” and demanded criminal proceedings against Mushegh Shushanian, Ara Zakarian, Artur Grigorian and Diana Grigorian. The Armenian police subsequently brought corresponding criminal charges against the lawyers. The latter, if convicted, could be stripped of their professional licenses, fined or sentenced to up to three months in prison.
The lawyers would avoid such punishment if they formally agreed to be covered by a general amnesty declared by the authorities last month. But they have decided not to make use of that right in order to be able to continue to press their own case against the judges in question, Arshak Petrosian and Yeva Darbinian.
“Our acceptance of the amnesty would mean that they can suppress legal advocacy,” Diana Grigorian told RFE/RL over the weekend. “At stake is not our interests. At stake is the very institution of advocacy.”
Grigorian spoke the day after the main opposition Armenian National Congress (HAK) urged her and her colleagues to agree to the amnesty and “retain their licenses.” “Regardless of what the Congress is telling us, we are categorically against that,” she said, adding that police investigators also urged them to accept the clemency.
Grigorian also said that the lawyers expect to exhaust all possibilities of legal action against the judges in Armenia without success before appealing to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.
The judges construed those actions as a “disrespectful attitude towards the court” and demanded criminal proceedings against Mushegh Shushanian, Ara Zakarian, Artur Grigorian and Diana Grigorian. The Armenian police subsequently brought corresponding criminal charges against the lawyers. The latter, if convicted, could be stripped of their professional licenses, fined or sentenced to up to three months in prison.
The lawyers would avoid such punishment if they formally agreed to be covered by a general amnesty declared by the authorities last month. But they have decided not to make use of that right in order to be able to continue to press their own case against the judges in question, Arshak Petrosian and Yeva Darbinian.
“Our acceptance of the amnesty would mean that they can suppress legal advocacy,” Diana Grigorian told RFE/RL over the weekend. “At stake is not our interests. At stake is the very institution of advocacy.”
Grigorian spoke the day after the main opposition Armenian National Congress (HAK) urged her and her colleagues to agree to the amnesty and “retain their licenses.” “Regardless of what the Congress is telling us, we are categorically against that,” she said, adding that police investigators also urged them to accept the clemency.
Grigorian also said that the lawyers expect to exhaust all possibilities of legal action against the judges in Armenia without success before appealing to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.