Manvel Grigoryan Brought to Court

The court session resumed under the chairmanship of Judge Mnatsakan Martirosyan for the case of former MP and former president of the Armenian National Congress (ANC) Manvel Grigoryan and Nazik Amiryan at the Yerevan Court of General Jurisdiction. The session had been postponed hours earlier due to Grigoryan's absence.

Doctors at the Nairi medical center have now allowed M. Grigoryan to attend the court session. Grigoryan is connected to an oxygen tube. Emergency medical personnel are also present in the courtroom.

During today’s session, the defense team submitted a motion for Judge Mnatsakan Martirosyan to recuse himself. When the defense attempted to present the absence of the defendant in previous sessions as a violation of the law, prosecutor Hayk Petrosyan stated that largely, the previous sessions were based on motions from the defense team. “At every session, they were trying to raise the issue of preventive measures with immediate motions without the defendant. Therefore, attributing their motions to the court in this context is dishonest. It should be noted that the administrative body’s motion only addresses a technical issue, while the remaining procedural processes have occurred within the framework of criminal proceedings. Thus, linking the resolution of the technical issue to the court’s bias is unfounded,” said the prosecutor.

According to Petrosyan, the defense tried to equate the appointed forensic examination with medical coercive measures, which he described as absurdity in legal terms. “The defense conflates two different legal institutions: the application of coercive measures of a medical nature in criminal law, which is applied only regarding persons found incompetent, and the appointment of a forensic examination, which is conducted in accordance with the established rules of criminal proceedings. Therefore, the evaluations they submitted are not only results of subjective perception but also attempt to distort two different legal institutions to obtain desired responses,” the prosecutor stated. He requested the court to reject the defense's motion for Judge Mnatsakan Martirosyan to recuse himself.

The court then withdrew to the consultation room to make a decision.

It is noteworthy that Manvel Grigoryan is accused of illegally possessing weapons and ammunition, embezzling property worth over 101 million drams, evading the payment of more than 1 billion drams in taxes, misusing public funds exceeding 1 billion drams, and organizing the theft of property worth 37 million drams through extortion. Nazik Amiryan is accused, in collusion with her husband, son Arman Grigoryan, and other unidentified individuals, of illegally storing military ammunition and explosives in three houses belonging to them, as well as committing various types of theft.