On 25 September, a court decision was
made on the theft at the Cinema Moscow. The court, chaired by judge Mkhitar
Papoyan, found Stepan Hovhakimyan guilty and sentenced him to 3 year
imprisonment. The other defendant in the case, Vahram Qerobyan, was found not
guilty. Thus, an innocent person was kept in Noubarashen detention prison for
2,5 yeas without any substantial evidence.

Let us remind that Stepan Hovhakimyan and
Vahram Qerobyan were charged with theft at the Moscow Cinema. There were
detained for more than two years. The only basis for the detention was
confession of Hovhakimyan, which he later stated was taken of him as a result of
torture.

Another evidence has been not revealed in
the court of Kentron and Nork Marash until 26 July, 2012, when Ruzanna Qerobyan,
Vahram Qerobyan's mother, gave a testimony that Hovhakimyan had passed a key
from the cash office of the cinema to her son and tried to convince him to
steal money from the cash office. However, at the last minute Qerobyan refused
to do so. Later, Hovhakimyan gave a testimony in the court and confirmed that Qerobyan
was not guilty.

After this, Vahram Qerobyan was released
on a bail of 500000 RA Drams, and found not guilty later.

According to the court decision, Stepan
Hovhakimyan was pleaded guilty for a theft committed on a large scale (Article
177.2.2 of the RA Criminal Code), which prescribes three years of imprisonment.
We shall note that Hovhakimyan has been in detention since February 2010. The
detention term should be considered within the sentence term, and thus in
February 2013 Hovhakimyan should be released.

The legal representative of Cinema Moscow
Norayr Azatyan told at the last court session that he did not want to discuss
the compensation of the stolen money, as the father of Hovhakimyan, Beniamin
Hovhakimyan gave the part of the money back to the cinema and will compensate
the remaining part in the future.