On January 16, 2012 the Court of Appeal (Chief Judge M. Rehanyan, the judges A. Danielyan, A. Hovhannisyan) decided to refuse the appeal and upheld the November 28, 2011 verdict issued by the Court of General jurisdiction of Malatia and Sebastia Districts.

The case description

On May 15 at around 9:00am near the premises of Holy Trinity Church located at Raffi street in Yerevan a conflict arose between the pastor of the church Ter Yesayi Priest Artenyan and the member of Jehovah's witnesses organization Andranik Makvetsyan.

According to the materials of the case Ter Yesayi priest Artak Artenyan noticed that the members of Jehovah's witnesses denominational organization Andranik Makvetsyan and Samvel Grigoryan were preaching to two citizens in the church yard and asked them to leave the church territory.  The young men refused to go away and entered into an argument with the priest.  The priest tried to take photos of the men preaching by his cellphone but Andranik Makventsyan snatched it. Ter Yesayi priest tried to take back the phone but Makvetsyan hit him on the hand.

It is written in the case materials that Andranik Makvetsyan threatened Ter Yesayi Priest with "I'll catch you later" and "I'll bite your throat" expressions to inflict heavy  damage to his health and went away.

After the incident the priest turned to the police. A criminal case was brought against Makvetsyan according to the Article 118 (Battery), Article 322.1 (Arrogation) and Article 137.1 (The threat to murder, to inflict heavy damage to one's health or to destroy property of big volume).

The case was sent to Malatia and Sebastia District Court on June 18, 2011.

On October 10, 2011 the Prosecutor made a decision on making amendments to Makvetsyan's accusation and added Article 143.1 of RA Criminal Code (Breach of citizens' legal equality).

On November 28, 2011 Court of general jurisdiction of Malatia-Sebastia Districts (judge T. Petrosyan) pled Andranik Makvetsyan guilty according to Article 143.1 and sentenced him to 6 months imprisonment.

 On December 6, 2011 Makvetsyan appealed against the decision of the court in the Court of Appeal and demanded to reverse First Instance Court's decision completely. Ter Yesayi Priest also appealed to the court and demanded to plead Makvetsyan guilty according to the above mentioned 4 articles.

On December 23, 2011 the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and its member organization "Civil Society Institute" NGO spread a message condemning the 6 months imprisonment of the member of Jehovah's witnesses organization Andranik Makvetsyan.

On December 29, 2011 "Civil Society Institute" NGO presented RA Court of Appeal and the public Amicus curiae -an analyses of a number of legal norms on this case which aims to support the court in implementing a fair trial and making a fair verdict. You can find Amicus curiae in Armenian here.