Հովհաննես Մանուկյան - Անձնական վեբ կայք Անձնական կայք

The three verdicts of the European Court of Human Rights against the government of Armenia, obliging it to pay a 40,000-euro fine, have once again raised the issue of why the tax payers’ money has to be spent on paying fines for unfair and ordered court decisions.

The European Court has brought in a verdict on the case of Grisha Virabyan, who was arrested in April 2004 after the post-election clashes, and was brutally beaten. For torture and discriminative treatment (as an oppositionist) the court ruled that the Armenian government has to pay 31,000-euro compensation, 25,000 of which is for moral damage.

For years Virabyan’s case was in the focus of attention at international human rights organizations, because he – a member of oppositional People’s Party of Armenia – was kept at the police station and was physically abused for several hours. This led to a complicated surgery when his left testicle had to be removed.

Ironically, the ones who stood before the Armenian court were not the tortures but the victim: Virabyan was charged with assault against a police officer. In 2005 his case was suspended, but those who had tortured him and caused irreversible damage to his health were never held criminally liable for their actions.

“This is, certainly, a victory and the compensation amount is unprecedented. Nonetheless, those people who tortured Virabyan like beasts, are still enjoying their ranks and posts. There is still a lot to do to fix that,” Virabyan’s attorney Tigran Ter-Yesayan told ArmeniaNow.

The second verdict of the European Court refers to Shoushi special battalion commander Zhirayr Sefilyan’s case. Some 15 masked National Security Service officers arrested him during a family feast on charges of illegal weapon possession and public appeals to make a violent attempt at changing the constitutional order and power turnover. None of the accusations was proved in the court.

The government is now obliged to pay a 6,000-euro compensation for violating his fundamental freedoms as a person.

Human rights activists are excited by the verdicts on these controversial cases, nonetheless the issue is why citizens of Armenia have to pay the fines (from the state budget).

“This issue has been discussed repeatedly, we always demand to impose financial liability upon the judges and prosecutors, but as these are usually political decisions ordered from the top, this issue never gets solved,” says Ter-Yesayan.

Former chairman of Armenia’s Court of Cassation Hovhannes Manukyan “absolutely disagrees with the suggestion of judges’ public flagellation or deprivation of property”, nonetheless shares the public concerns.

“We were discussing these issues with European experts yet a decade ago. They were surprised even by the fact of even discussing such a suggestion,” Manukyan told ArmeniNow, adding that this kind of suggestions are ‘spiced’ with concerns about taxpayers’ money”, which simply lead to absurdities.

“Let’s see: why not make the criminals pay for the expenses required for keeping policemen, investigators and prosecutors? The logic seems quite simple and fair: if there weren’t criminals, taxpayers would not have to keep that many police officers, investigators and prosecutors,” he says.

Manukyan also asks why, if following that logic, only judges should be punished.

“There are many cases when the country loses because a domestic law has been applied to the person, but that law limits some of his rights consolidated in the Convention. Who should pay the compensation in that case? The National Assembly, all of the MPs, or maybe only those who voted for that law? Or, let us start with the officer who was in charge of taking the person into custody. So, you see, it [this logic] can lead to absurdities. One thing is obvious – the damage to the person has to be compensated and the state has to be responsible for that.”