On December 5 the RA Court of Appeals heard the case of the employee of the press-center of the Union of Armenian Writers, a member of the Journalists Union of Armenia Theresa Asatrian who challenged the ruling to the court of primary jurisdiction of Lori region of October 6, 2005. The court of primary jurisdiction had convicted Theresa Asatrian to 3 years’ imprisonment and a fine of 400,000 AMD (about $ 900) for attempted cheating (cl. 2 p. 2 Art. 34-178 of RA Criminal Code) and involvement in bribery (cl. 1 p. 3 Art. 38-312 of RA Criminal Code). As reported in the June 2 press release of the General Prosecutor’s Office, on May 17 Theresa Asatrian provoked the notary of Vanadzor notary region Arusiak Azarian to give a bribe of $ 3,500 to prevent the submission to the court of the materials against the notary gathered by the RA National Security Service, and the publication of a revelatory article written by the journalist herself (see YPC Weekly Newsletter, October 7-13, 2005).
The Court of Appeals recognized Theresa Asatrian not guilty on one of the charges – involvement in bribery. On the other charge, attempted cheating, the fine imposed was twice reduced – to 200 thousand AMD (about $ 450). Theresa Asatrian was released from the courtroom.
