YEREVAN. – The Criminal Court of Appeal has put off the examination of the appeals filed by the attorneys of opposition Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP) leader, MP and business tycoon Gagik Tsarukyan, and by the prosecutor's office regarding the criminal case against him. Yerem Sargsyan, one of Tsarukyan’s attorneys, said this in a conversation with journalists Thursday in front of the aforesaid appellate court.

He added that the court session was rescheduled for July 7.

"Since some of the appeals were sent by mail, they have not reached the court yet," Sargsyan said.

In turn, Samvel Dilbandyan, another lawyer of the PAP leader, told reporters that the prosecution was not familiarized with their appeals. "We found out that the appeal had already come out of the post [office], but it has not reached the court yet. Our appeal referred to the reasonable doubt, as well as our objections to the appeal brought by the prosecution regarding the existence of grounds for pretrial measures [against Tsarukyan],” he said.

The attorney added that there is no reasonable doubt in this criminal case and it has not been proved. "There is not enough factual evidence on the presence of reasonable doubt," Dilbandyan concluded.

As reported earlier, Gagik Tsarukyan did not appear in court Thursday, as he is infected with the coronavirus. One of his lawyers, Emin Khachatryan, told Armenian News-NEWS.am Wednesday that they were going to present to the court medical papers about Tsarukyan’s health so that the court would consider his absence acceptable.

Gagik Tsarukyan is charged with vote buying, but he does not accept the charge and says it is unlawful.