HARUTYUNYAN v. ARMENIA JUDGMENT
13
guilt had been proven by other evidence. In Schenk v. Switzerland (12 July
1988, § 48, Series A no. 140), the Court found no violation of Article 6
since the unlawfully obtained evidence was not the only evidence proving
the applicant’s guilt. According to the Court’s case-law, the admissibility
and evaluation of evidence fell within the competence of the domestic
courts, and the Court had to verify whether the proceedings as a whole were
fair. In the present case, the finding of the applicant’s guilt was based on a
number of other items of evidence, including testimonies given by the
applicant and witnesses T. and A. during the court proceedings.
(b) The applicant
55. The applicant submitted that the Government’s assertion that the
statements obtained under torture had not been used as part of the basis for
his conviction contradicted the facts of the case. According to Article 369 of
the CCP, a judgment was to be composed of introductory, descriptivemotivational and concluding parts. According to Article 371 of the CCP, the
descriptive-motivational part of a judgment was to contain: (1) the content
of the accusation; (2) the court’s conclusions with regard to the
circumstances of the case, the accusation being tested and the defendant’s
guilt; (3) the evidence on which the court’s conclusions were based; and
(4) the legal provisions on which the court relied in reaching its decision.
The descriptive-motivational part of the Syunik Regional Court’s judgment
of 19 June 2002 started with the words “The following has been established
during the court examination”, followed by the circumstances of the case,
the conclusions of the court and the evidence on which these conclusions
were based. As part of such evidence, the court referred to the applicant’s
confession statements of 16 and 17 April 1999 and the statements by
witnesses T. and A., which had been obtained under torture. Thereafter,
having compared the statements of witnesses T. and A. made during the
preliminary investigation, including those made under coercion, with those
made at a later stage of the proceedings, the Regional Court gave preference
to the statements obtained under torture, stating that “the coercion was
applied for the purpose of ensuring disclosure of the truth”.
56. Furthermore, the Court of Appeal, having upheld the judgment of
19 June 2002, thereby considered it to be lawful and well-grounded.
Moreover, the Court of Appeal itself referred to the applicant’s confession
statement of 16 April 1999 as evidence substantiating his guilt. The Court of
Appeal further referred to the statements by witnesses T. and A., made at
the earliest stage of the proceedings before the Syunik Regional Court.
However, as opposed to witness T., witness A. had never made such
submissions before the Regional Court. Thus, the statements referred to
were the statements made by witness A. during the preliminary
investigation, when he was tortured. Furthermore, the Court of Cassation in
its decision of 8 May 2003 did not deny that the statements obtained under
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