THE SUPREME COURT OF RNK ONCE AGAIN REJECTED THE SOLICITATION TO TRANSFER TO ARMENIA THE CRIMINAL CASE OF THE TERRORIST ACT AGAINST RNK PRESIDENT

PanARMENIAN.Net - 20.09.2000, MEDIAMAX, YEREVAN. Today, at the trial of the terrorist act against RNK president, the court considered the solicitation of the lawyers of RNK ex defense minister Samvel Babayan to transfer the criminal case to the military tribunal of Syunik region of Armenia for consideration. The lawyers motivated their demand by the fact that in accordance with the Criminal-Procedure code of the republic, crimes, committed by servicemen, are to be considered only by military tribunal.

As the correspondent of MEDIAMAX reports, the state prosecutor, the General Prosecutor of RNK, Mavr Ghukasian said that the agreement, signed several years ago by Armenian and RNK prosecutor's offices because of cancellation of the military tribunal in RNK, envisages the consideration of crimes, committed by servicemen, in the court of Syunik region of Armenia, but it applies only to military crimes, while in this case, according to M. Ghukasian, we deal with state crime.

The court decided to reject the solicitation of the lawyers, assessing it as " being groundless and not meeting the law demands". It is also stated in the court decision that according to Karabakh laws, criminal cases of the servicemen, having Colonel and higher ranks, should be considered in the Supreme Court of RNK.

As Chairman Suren Alexanian said, only Samvel Babayan and Levon Mirzoyan have supported the solicitation to transfer the criminal case to the court of the Republic of Armenia for consideration. The rest of the accused left it to court's discretion.

The trial of the accused of the terrorist act of March 22 against RNK president Arkady Ghukasian started on September 18 in Stepanakert. The main accused of the case is the RNK ex defense minister, Lieutenant-General Samvel Babayan. -0-