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Regarding the cases in the legal department of the Right Side HRD NGO/Update

05․10․2022

As of October 5, 2022, a total of 21 cases are being handled by the Right Side HRD NGO, out of which 2 are in the ECHR, 5 are in the court and 14 are in the preliminary investigation stages.

ECHR proceedings:

  1. L. M. v. Republic of Armenia, recognition of violations of Articles 3, 6, 8, 13 of the ECHR.
  2. K. A. v. Republic of Armenia, recognition of violations of Articles 6 and 8 of the Convention.

Civil cases:

  1. The civil case according to the claim A.A. vs. “Iskander” LLC, about the demands to recognize the employment relationship as having arisen and confiscate the salary amount.

In this case, the Court of First Instance rejected the claim, after which we appealed to the RA Court of Civil Appeals, which accepted proceedings on 04.08.2022. We have not yet been notified about the date of publication of the decision.

Criminal cases at the court stage:

  1. G.T. was beaten, material and moral damage was caused to him, a criminal case was initiated under Articles 118 and 185 of the RA Criminal Code, G.T. was recognized as a victim. The case is under trial.
  2. M. was charged under Article 178 of the RA Criminal Code. According to the accusation, the applicant appropriated gold from the gold market, did not make a transaction with the bank, and did not return it to the owner. The case is in the General Jurisdiction of the Court of First Instance, at the trial stage.
  3. G. V. was charged with having developed a close interpersonal relationship and mutual trust with female sex workers while providing taxi service for years. During that time, he learned from them that the money received from sex work was the financial source for solving the social problems for L.Kh., A.A., A.G. and A.S. Taking advantage of the situation and creating a reason to depend on him in the future, as if he was the only option to make cash, G.V. offered them gold worth twice the market value, on the condition that the amount would be paid in installments later. They were forced to engage in sex work every day under the compulsion to pay the debt owed to G.V., beacuse of the vulnerability of their condition, they were being put into operation and exploited by G.V., transferring the earned money to him. The organization protects the interests of sex worker A.M., who is a victim.

Criminal cases at the stage of preliminary investigation:

  1. In the criminal case initiated under Article 261 of the RA Criminal Code, sex worker A.A. was recognized as a victim. A.A. contacted the organization and reported that they underwent trafficking.
  2. Within the framework of the criminal case initiated under Article 261 of the RA Criminal Code, new cases of crime occurred, as a result of the complaints submitted by the lawyer, two more criminal cases were initiated under Articles 340 and 110 of the RA Criminal Code. E.Kh. was recognized as a victim.
  3. In the criminal case initiated under Article 118 of the RA Criminal Code, D. was recognized as a victim. The latter informed that their client came to their place of residence, threatened to kill them and shouted insults, beat them.
  4. In the criminal case initiated under Article 262 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Armenia, M. was charged with the case that they had allegedly fostered several other people to engage in sex work.
  5. A.Q. was recognized as a victim in the criminal case initiated under Article 178, Part 2 of the RA Criminal Code. The latter informed us that their acquaintance took gold jewelry from their common acquaintance in their name and caused a loss of about one million AMD.
  6. A. was recognized as a victim in the criminal case initiated under Article 340 of the RA Criminal Code. The latter applied to the organization and reported that he had undergone trafficking.
  7. H.A. reported that he had been beaten during the service. A criminal case was initiated under Article 450 of the RA Criminal Code. H.A. was recognized as a victim.
  8. A.N. was recognized as a victim in the criminal case initiated under Article 195 of the RA Criminal Code. A.N. was beaten by H.E., who filmed the whole process of the beating with his phone and spread it online on social networks.
  9. In the criminal case initiated under Articles 194 and 330 of the RA Criminal Code, L.M. was recognized as a victim. The latter appealed to the police, reporting that H.E. had made threats against trans people.
  10. L.M. was recognized as a victim in the criminal case initiated under Article 359 of the RA Criminal Code. An unknown person accessed the Organization’s website, downloaded pictures belonging to the Organization and illegally published them on another website owned by them.
  11. M. was recognized as a victim in the criminal case initiated under Article 194 of the RA Criminal Code. The latter informed that her client came to her place of residence, threatened to kill her and uttered insults and hate speech towards her.

During September 2022, the Right Side HRD NGO provided legal counseling to 47 beneficiaries, 6 of them submitted applications to protect their interests, with whom contracts were signed on the provision of legal services free of charge.

In the other cases, the Right Side HRD NGO lawyers provided ongoing service of the cases, in particular, the lawyers participated in court sessions, in 4 cases they participated in investigative activities, in 3 cases they submitted applications to the criminal proceedings to be included as representatives, which were satisfied.

A total of 17 people applied to the NGO for getting counceling on military commissariat issues. A total of 79 people from Russia and Ukraine applied to the NGO for legal counceling. 64 people applied to get counceling on hormone therapy.

The Right Side HRD NGO is also conducting a survey on hate crimes among the beneficiaries, which will be summarized in December 2022.

Court case completed in September:

In September 2022, a court case was completed, according to which G.T. was accused of driving a vehicle, while not having driver’s license and being in an inebriated state, on September 17, 2021.A criminal case was initiated in the Kotayk Region Department of the RA Investigative Committee under Part 2 of Article 243.1 of the RA Criminal Code. G.T. asked the Right Side HRD NGO to undertake the protection of their interests.  As a result, thanks to the legal department of the organization, a sentence of 6 months was imposed on G.T. by the General Jurisdiction Court of Kotayk region on 10.03.2022, which, however, was not applied conditionally.

The Prosecutor, not agreeing with the verdict, submitted an appeal to the RA Criminal Court of Appeals, demanding the annulment of the verdict in terms of not applying the sentence conditionally. The Criminal Court of Appeal of the Republic of Armenia by its decision of 23.09.2022 rejected the appeal of the Prosecutor, as a result, the sentence imposed on G.T. remained unchanged; the latter is at liberty.

November 22, 2022 Armenia, Yerevan

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