Ruled anti-constitutional
The Constitutional Court recognized the article of the Penal Code that permitted quashing the criminal case on the grounds of insufficient evidence as anti-constitutional and invalid.
The Constitutional Court took the decision today by examining the appeals filed by Armenian National Congress representative Karapet Rubinyan and "Hanrapetutyun" (Republic) party leader Aram Sargsyan through a written procedure.
After March 1, 2008, a criminal case had been brought up against Karapet Rubinyan and Aram Sargsyan under the charges of usurping state power and organizing mass disturbances, but both were off persecution in December 2008 on the grounds of insufficient evidence through the application of Part 2, Article 35 of the Penal Code.
Artak Zeynalyan, representative of Aram Sargsyan and Karapet Rubinyan, told "A1+" that they are dealing with a hypothesis: If there is no evidence, there is no guilt and the case must be quashed on the grounds of innocence.
"We think there is no need for Article 35. It goes against Articles 18 and 21 of the Constitution," said Artak Zeynalyan and informed that they were going to appeal to the Cassation Court with the demand to reconsider the appeals by which the grounds for quashing the case against those persons was still in effect.
