“HRANT BAGRATIAN IS UNDER POLITICAL PERSECUTION”

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In conjunction with the Presidential Elections 2008 various political figures were and still are under persecution. One of them is former RA Prime-Minister Hrant Bagratian, against whom a case was brought by former President of the RA Central Bank, Prime-Minister Tigran Sargssian.

In the February 2 issue of the “Aravot” Daily Hrant Bagratian had touched upon the bankruptcy and liquidation processes of “Ardshinbank”, “Agrobank” and “Haykhnaybank”, which had given their actives to “Ardshininvestbank”. In the article Hrant Bagratian laid the blame on President of the Central Bank Tigran Sargssian.

According to the RA Constitution the Central Bank monitors the activity of all the banks in Armenia and thus the responsibility lies with Tigran Sargssian.

However, because of “bank secrecy” Bagratian was not able to obtain the decisions on bankruptcy, liquidation and self-liquidation of these 3 banks and had to turn to court with the request to make an inquiry and demand all the pre-liquidation decisions from the Central Bank.

The Court rejected the request, depriving the claimant of the opportunity to prove his words. “In fact, on the one hand the Court deprived us of the opportunity to prove the facts, on the other hand it regarded the presented facts unproven,” said Arthur Grigorian, representative of Bagratian’s interests. By the way, he considers Bagratian’s case political persecution on the grounds that Bagratian had published articles containing more critical accusations.

As a result the claim has been partially satisfied. Bagratian is given time to “apologize” to Tigran Sargssian and readers of the “Aravot” daily for making false statements. “It is an inappropriate sanction,” says Arthur Grigorian, “The Court has enlarged the scope of its authorities. According to the Constitution it can only oblige you to reject your statements but not make you apologize. It is done with the aim to diminish the public role of Bagratian ,” declared Arthur Grigorian and added that they are determined to appeal the decision in the European Court.