17:48, 23 June 2017

Court removes Vahan Shirkhanyan from courtroom

At the court session on the case of the Yerevan armed group, the judge has treated the refusal of the defendant Vahan Shirkhanyan to stand up as disrespect of the court. Despite his claim of his poor health condition as the reason, the judge removed him from the courtroom.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that Vahan Shirkhanyan failed to appear at seven court sessions, demanding to bring him to court in stretchers; therefore, his forensic medical examination was appointed to him, the Armenian General Prosecutor's Office (GPO) reported on March 29. According to Shirkhanyan's advocate, because of poor state of health, his client cannot sit or stand for long.

Vahan Shirkhanyan, who in 1995-1999 was the first deputy head of the Armenian Ministry of Defence, was detained in December 2015 as a suspect in the case of Arthur Vardanyan's armed grouping. Investigators believe that the grouping was plotting attacks on country leaders. Shirkhanyan refuses to plead guilty. Already after his arrest, he underwent an urgent surgery.

At the today's session, Judge Armen Bektashyan has stated that Vahan Shirkhanyan showed his contempt of the court by refusing to stand.

"The court wouldn't understand that I can't stand," Shirkhanyan has objected. After that, the judge removed Shirkhanyan from the courtroom for three hours, and left the courtroom himself, the "News Armenia-NEWS.am" reports.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.