January 18, 2007

Surprise, Surprise: Raffi Hovannisian’s Legal Claims Denied Again
Heritage’s Quest Continues

Yerevan—Two separate court trials, examining related petitions by Heritage Party founder Raffi K. Hovannisian, were held over the course of the past three months. Both lawsuits pertained to the Service for Mandatory Execution of Judicial Acts (SMEJA) of the Ministry of Justice.

On and after May 30, 2006, the SMEJA marshals twice illegally locked and sealed the doors at Heritage headquarters. This extralegal conduct and the ensuing “wild goose chase” throughout Armenia’s courts had been triggered on March 4 when the management of the Paronian State Theater, under orders to obstruct the activities of a leading civic force but with no judicial sanction whatsoever, broke the existing lock and placed a new one on the outside door of its main office. Even prior to the hearing on SMEJA’s first unlawful action, however, this agency, which has become known as a principal instrument serving the political and business interests of the ruling clique in the republic, on July 21 surpassed its own record of carrying out actions that contravene the law. On that day, SMEJA disregarded once again the recent ruling by the Court of First Instance of Yerevan’s Central and Nork-Marash communities in favor of plaintiff Hovannisian, and proceeded to close down the office a second time.

As a reminder, on July 20, 2006, based on the Central and Nork-Marash Court’s June 26 judgment that came into force on July 12, Heritage’s executive board members, in the presence of several media representatives, had opened the office doors which had been sealed for unsubstantiated reasons by the SMEJA marshals on May 30, only one day after the office’s reopening pursuant to the April 14 injunction issued in the underlying case by the Central and Nork-Marash Court. However, despite the Court’s finding that the initial break-in and lock-out were illegal and Hovannisian’s rights had been violated, a normally-leased office remained elusive for the Heritage staff. On the very next day, July 21, approximately thirty marshals from SMEJA had yet again surrounded the party headquarters. Panic-stricken and under strict telephonic “instructions from above,” the marshals initially prohibited the staff from entering their offices and subsequently locked and resealed the doors without showing any Court order or other legal warrant to that effect.

Against this background, today, January 18, 2007, Judge Arthur Smbatyan of the Davtashen-Ajapniak Court of First Instance heard, and of course rejected without reason, Raffi Hovannisian’s complaint against SMEJA demanding a judicial determination that the July 21 actions of the officers from SMEJA’s Central and Nork-Marash Division were patently illegal and thus a corresponding order to reopen the doors of Heritage. On October 23, 2006, the same judge had commenced the hearing on Hovannisian’s aforementioned complaint but, though properly notified, defendant SMEJA did not appear in court. Judge Smbatyan had stated that the law nonetheless allowed for the case to be examined upon plaintiff’s accord, but Hovannisian’s attorney Zaruhi Postanjian had moved to have the case heard in defendant’s presence. The Court had granted Postanjian’s motion and ordered a continuance of the trial for an unspecified time. Subsequently, on December 1, Judge Smbatyan had reconvened the hearing during which the Court decided to include the Paronian Theater, which is not a defendant in this case, as a third party to it. This resulted in the ensuing continuance of the trial again for an unstipulated time. In the absence of both SMEJA and the Paronian Theater, that trial opened—and finally closed—today according to the anticipated scenario.

Separately, on October 19, 2006, the Yerevan Court of Appeals, composed of Judges Vardan Avanesyan, Karine Hakobyan, and Daniel Khachatryan, heard Raffi Hovannisian’s formal appeal, submitted by Zaruhi Postanjian, of the August 24 ruling made by Judge Narine Barseghyan of the Davtashen-Ajapniak Court of First Instance. Judge Barseghyan had denied Hovannisian’s claim against the SMEJA marshals for their original unlawful sealing of the Heritage headquarters on May 30, only one day after it was reopened pursuant to the Central and Nork-Marash Court’s April 14 injunction. The SMEJA officers had forced Hovannisian and the office staff to leave the premises. All office doors and windows were then locked and sealed again.

And so, upon “examining” in the absence of the representatives of SMEJA and the Paronian Theater—a third party to this lawsuit—“the existing causes of action in the case,” the appeals panel, in expected compliance with an Armenian “jurisprudence” that is vertically subservient to the whims of the incumbent regime, ruled against the petitioner for truth and civil rights and thus upheld the Davtashen-Ajapniak Court’s August 24 judgment, which in terms of process and result was wholly outside the frontiers of legality and ran counter to common rationality.

Hence, two legal cases heard in two different courtrooms, but with the same outcome. “It is beyond all doubt that the parochial, cowardly ‘mastermind’ behind the ongoing illegalities and arbitrariness aimed against the Heritage Party is in hiding at the presidential palace,” stated Heritage board chairman Vardan Khachatrian.

Lawyer Zaruhi Postanjian, in turn, was not disheartened by these sad little games being played out through the local court system. “It is impossible to discourage us, and the Heritage team is resolute in its pursuit of justice.”