The statement of the “LEGIST” law office:
On November 30, the General Prosecutor’s Office mentioned on its website the public criminal prosecution initiated against Tsolak Arami Akopyan, whose defense was undertaken by the managing partner of the “LEGIST” law office, lawyer Arsen Babayan and the lawyer of the same office, Rudik Dolunts.
Based on the fact that the General Prosecutor’s Office has published unreliable and distorted information regarding the above-mentioned criminal proceedings and our client, as well as the factual data of the alleged act, as well as bearing in mind that some of the data of the proceedings have already been made public (declassified) by the Prosecutor’s Office and without leaving their scope. We make the following statement.
Thus, the General Prosecutor’s Office stated that:
1) “On November 30, 2023, the Prosecutor’s Office initiated a public criminal prosecution against the “Valery Brusov State University of Linguistics and Social Sciences of Yerevan” in 2018-2022 (…)”.
– It is noteworthy that the General Prosecutor’s Office revealed in the very first sentence that at least it does not possess publicly available reliable data. In particular, as of 2017, “Yerevan Valery Brusov State University of Linguistics and Social Sciences” does not exist. On August 22, 2017, the University changed its name, as well as, which is the most important, its organizational and legal form. The university started from that day is called “State University named after V. Bryusov” Foundation. In other words, the legal entity “State Non-Commercial Organization” has been changed to a completely different legal entity, the “Foundation” legal entity. This circumstance is essential in the sense that from that moment on, the act attributed to Tsolak Akopyan, even if it was really committed, cannot be considered a crime, because Mr. Akopyan cannot be considered an official in the sense of Article 441 of the Criminal Code. In addition, even if we accept that a person holding a position in the Foundation can be equal to a person holding a public position, then again in the sense of Article 3, Part 1, Article 20 of the Criminal Code, he cannot be considered an official, because the mentioned article established a condition that the person occupying such a position must be authorized to act on behalf of the state organization he/she represents or be authorized to cause rights, duties or responsibilities on behalf of that organization. Meanwhile, Mr. Akopyan was not endowed with such authority by the legislation and the charter of the University.
According to the following statement of the Prosecutor General’s Office:
2) In the criminal proceedings examined by the Anti-corruption Committee, it was found that T.A., occupying the position of the dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Service of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, being a joint professor of “Philosophy and History”, “UNESCO Human Rights, Democracy and Political Science of BSU Foundation” the senior lecturer of the chairs, in the conditions of not being included in the commissions by the orders of the rector of the SNOC, has gone beyond the scope of his authority.
In particular, from students who received insufficient grades in the English subject during 2019-2022: RN, HS, MA, M.T., SA, V. from M. and N.P., accepted “1st foreign language (English) 4”, “Written speech (English)”, “Written speech (English) 2”, “Oral speech (English) liquidation exams of 3” subjects and assigned positive grades of “60” by putting his signature instead of the commission member’s on the exam bulletin.
– During the judicial examination of the motion for detention, the investigator of the Anti-Corruption Committee and the supervising prosecutor did not present any factual data that Mr. Akopyan personally accepted any foreign language exam from any student. Moreover, even the signatures in the submitted newsletters have not been confirmed by any objective factual data that Tsolak Akopyan personally made them. Copies of the mentioned bulletins along with the report on the crime were handed over to the Anti-Corruption Committee by the current rector of the University. Meanwhile, it is a well-known fact that there is a dispute between the rector and Tsolak Akopyan, within which the legality of the rector’s dismissal of Mr. Akopyan is contested.
The anti-corruption committee has not undertaken any investigative activity, through which it would be possible to collect objective factual data, within five months after initiating criminal proceedings. Moreover, during those five months, the investigator never invited Mr. Akopyan for questioning, did not receive any information about him that could indicate that Mr. Akopyan might avoid the investigation, try to interfere with the preliminary investigation or commit a crime, and in those conditions, reached an unreasonable conclusion. that he should be arrested and for that purpose illegally arrested the already accused Tsolak Akopyan.
The court applied the measure of administrative control to the illegally removed vice-rector of the “V. Bryusov State University” foundation, Tsolak Akopyan. According to the assessment of the defense team, the restraining order applied by the Anti-Corruption Court is not legal. From our side, that decision will be challenged in the Anti-corruption Court of Appeals in a special revision procedure.
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