“Absurd, a farce, and outside the Law”: Lawyers criticize the court

The Yerevan Criminal Court of General Jurisdiction, presided over by Judge Manvel Shahverdyan, has decided to extend the detention of Narek Samsonyan and Vazgen Saghatelyan, co-authors of the Imnemnimi podcast, for an additional three months.

“This decision means they can do whatever they want to anyone,” Narek Samsonyan’s lawyer, Ruben Melikyan, told reporters. He stressed that the proceedings cannot be described in any terms other than a farce.

Vazgen Saghatelyan’s lawyer, Arsen Babayan, stated that the Court of Appeals had already established that Narek Samsonyan’s arrest was unlawful from the outset, dating back to November 14, and that a measure of house arrest should have been applied instead.

“In this situation, the judge should not have been considering the extension of detention at all, but rather the issue of extending or modifying house arrest. What took place was absurd and entirely outside the bounds of jurisprudence,” Babayan said.

Commenting on Narek Samsonyan’s decision to declare an indefinite hunger strike, Melikyan noted that Samsonyan remains firm. “This means he must be treated separately. This is a political stance taken in response to this disgrace,” the lawyer added.