Advocate of Sukiasians applies to Armenian president with
request to protect his professional rights
26-02-2010 22:00:00 | Armenia | Politics
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 26, NOYAN TAPAN - ARMENIANS TODAY. Ara
Zohrabian, advocate of businessmen Khachatur and Saribek
Sukiasians, applied to Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan and all
high-ranking officials of the country with the request to
prevent attempts by the investigation body to interfere in
his activity as an advocate. In his application, the advocate
asked the prosecutor general of Armenia and the prosecutor of
Yerevan's Erebuni and Nubarashen administrative regions to
invalidate the decision on seizure (concerning the decision's
part on seizure of a computer) taken on 23 February 2010 by
Senior Lieutenant H. Deleyan, an investigator of the Erebuni
investigation unit of the RA police. It was said in the
application that the indicated decision was to be invalidated in
view of Article 13 of the European Convention for the Protection
of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and Article 290 of the
RA Criminal Procedure Code.
According to the advocate, the investigator had intended to
seize the computer in order to check the fact of drawing up a
legal document related to the advocate Ara Zohrabian's client.
By Ara Zohrabian's consent, the respective file in that computer
was examined (incuding the chronology of its creation) and then
printed and sent to the investigator. The advocate Ara Zohrabian
gave the investigator only the printer and declined to provide
the computer (processor), explaining that the computer contains
information considered as advocate's secret - in view of
Principle 22 the UN Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers,
Article 21 of the RA Law on Legal Acts, and Article 25 of the RA
Law on Advocacy.
The investigator seized the printer, while the processor
has not been seized yet because the advocate A. Zohrabian did not
give it, but there is a real threat of its forced seizure.
It should be mentioned that the seized file is related to
the criminal case opened against Saribek Sukiasian, Khachatur
Sukiasian's brother.