Pashinyan Jr's abduction court hearing to be held behind closed doors

The court session on the kidnapping case of Ashot Pashinyan, the Armenian prime minister’s son, will be held behind closed doors.

A court employee announced this to the lawyers of Gayane Hakobyan (Martirosyan, the mother of the deceased soldier Zhora Martirosyan), who is accused of the kidnapping, Caliber.Az reports via Armenian media.

“The defence did not file a motion to hold the meeting behind closed doors. We need to understand why the court made such a decision,” Hakobyan’s lawyer Varduhi Elbakyan said.

She added that the defence intended to submit several motions, including for the self-withdrawal of Judge Manvel Shahbazyan.

To recap, on May 17, after the Investigative Committee opened a criminal case under the article “abduction of a person”, based on Ashot Pashinyan’s statement, Gayane Hakobyan, the mother of the deceased serviceman Zhora Martirosyan, was detained. She was accused of organising the kidnapping of Pashinyan Jr. She was later placed in custody.

On June 5, the Court of Appeal changed the preventive measure from arrest to house arrest. At the end of the day, First instance judge Manvel Shahverdyan decided to arrest her again, but for 45 days.

According to investigators, members of the Call of Sons organization forced Pashinyan Jr. to get into their car, but he managed to jump out and was hit by another car.

The Call of Sons organisation denied the kidnapping accusation. According to them, Pashinyan Jr. voluntarily got into the car of the mother of the deceased soldier and agreed to go to the Yerablur military cemetery in Yerevan, but jumped out of the car on the way.