Eyewitness can also reach the European Court
"It's getting harder to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights," said today President of the "Forum" Legal Center Tigran Ter-Yesayan to "A1+".
The propositions of the European Convention on Human Rights must be violated in order for a person to appeal to the European Court.
"Forum" has been collaborating with the London-based "Kurdish Human Rights Project" (KHRP) legal organization since 2001 and the latter is involved in presenting appeals to the European Court for 15 years running. Since 2002, both "Forum" and "KHRP" have presented tens of appeals to the European Court of which six have been approved and six are in progress. There have been no denials.
President of KHRP Kerim Yildiz is in Yerevan today to participate in the consultations entitled "Fulfillment of European Court's Verdicts: no subjection to torture and bad behavior".
In the wake of the events of March 1, many people voiced concerns over torture of prisoners during the preliminary inquiry, as well as assaults and pressures. Many of the accused are planning to appeal to the European Court and among them are Petros Makeyan, Shota Saghatelyan and Ashot Zakaryan whose appeals are being prepared by "KHRP" and "Forum".
The president of "Forum" Tigran Ter-Yesayan believes that eyewitnesses who have announced that they were assaulted to testify for anyone may also appeal to the European Court.
Before appealing to the court, the eyewitness must first try to restore his rights in local tribunals, which is almost impossible, and then appeal to the European Court.
According to Yildiz, if the eyewitness announces in court that he has been beaten, the court must take measures to bring up a case for beating the eyewitness.
"The prosecutor's office must bring up a case for beating the eyewitness based on the release of the court and then the eyewitness must continue the process of restoring his rights in other instances until he reaches the European Court," said Yildiz.
