The hot news at the 11 September session of the court of primary jurisdiction of Center and Nork-Marash communities of Yerevan on the murder of Tigran Naghdalian, the Chairman of the Council of RA Public TV and Radio Company, committed on December 28, 2002 (see YPC Weekly Newsletter, September 5-11, 2003) appeared to be the decision on temporary dismissal of Hovhannes Arsenyan. The latter is one of the two attorneys of Armen Sargsian who is considered to be the main orderer of the crime by the prosecution. The court has accepted the corresponding appeal of the prosecution which in its turn referred to the publication in “Hayots Ashkhar” daily (September 11, 2003),”The Attorney Also Used to Take Gold Once”. According to the article, in 1997 Hovhannes Arsenyan, as a Senior Investigator of the Interior Affairs Department of the Tumanyan district of Armenia, was sentenced to 4 years of imprisonment for abuse of his plenary powers. In 1999, a year after his probation, Arsenyan got lawyer’s license issued on the basis of personal form where his previous convictions were not mentioned. In this respect, on September 12, 2003 criminal proceedings were initiated against Hovhannes Arsenyan for falsification of documents (Article 325 of RA Criminal Code).
At the court session of September 16, Hovhannes Arsenyan attempted to dispute the decision on his dismissal from the trial but he was forced out of the hall.
