YEREVAN. – The Court of Appeals reconvened Wednesday to examine the case against Tigran Arakelyan and the other activists of the opposition Armenian National Congress (ANC).  

During the hearing the court denied Arakelyan’s defense attorney’s motion to commute his client’s restraining order because, in his words, if the recently passed amnesty law is applied, there will be no grounds for still keeping the activist in custody (photos).  

The court rejected the motion arguing that the defense can submit such motion solely during the phase of legal arguments.

Subsequently, Arakelyan became angry and started shouting that he “formally refuses amnesty” and does not understand why he should remain in custody for another two months.    

As a result, the bailiffs removed the ANC activist from the courtroom, and the court session was interrupted for an indefinite time.   

To note, a general jurisdiction court had sentenced ANC activists Tigran Arakelyan, Artak Karapetyan, Sargis Gevorgyan, and Davit Kiramijyan to six, three, and two years, respectively, as a result of an incident that had occurred with a group of police officers on August 9, 2011, in capital city Yerevan. The Criminal Court of Appeals had upheld this ruling, and therefore the activists’ attorneys had submitted to the Court of Cassation their objections to this verdict. As a result, six of the young activists were released on signature bond, whereas Arakelyan had remained under arrest.

Photos by Arsen Sargsyan/NEWS.am