An Armenian activist in Georgia protesting a guilty verdict in a high-profile criminal case said on Friday he refuses to attend the hearings of his appeal as he cited serious obstacles in the proceedings, including “an extremely poor level of translation from Georgian into Armenian.”

Vahagn Chakhalyan, the leader of the United Javakhk Democratic Alliance, was arrested along with his father and underage brother in July 2008 following a car bomb blast near the home of the chief of police in Akhalkalak, the provincial center of the mostly Armenian-populated region of Javakhk in southern Georgia.

In April, the Georgian court found Chakhalyan guilty on several charges, including “acquisition and possession of firearms and ammunition”, “organizing a group action which grossly disrupted public order”, and “hooliganism committed against a government representative”, and sentenced him to 10 years in prison.

Chakhalyan has all along protested his innocence and claimed to have been targeted for his political activities and advocacy of Armenian minority rights in Georgia. His lawyers took the case into an appeals court in July.

Well before the hearing scheduled for October 23, Chakhalyan sent a statement to the court in which he decried what he described as “the travesty of justice” happening in the Georgian court and in particular the “extremely poor level of translation of the hearings into Armenian.” (By Georgian law, a due level of translation must be ensured in courts).

“As a result, I have no opportunity to follow the course of the hearings and participate in them,” said Chakhalyan, warning that he would no longer attend the court hearings “of his own will”.

One of Chakhalyan’s three defense lawyers told ArmeniaNow that Chakhalyan, currently kept in a high-security jail in Tbilisi, was, nevertheless, brought to court against his will for the Friday hearing.

Stepan Voskanyan said that finding no understanding of the court, which effectively refused to admit the poor quality and often lack of translation at all for the Armenian participants of the proceedings, including the counsel for the defense, Chakhalyan decided to leave the courtroom. The other two defendants, Chakhalyan’s father and younger brother, followed suit, according to the lawyer.

“Like during the previous sessions, the hearing again proceeded in ‘a warm atmosphere’, because our participation and presence was not felt in any way. They were talking [in Georgian] among themselves with only occasional selected translation made available,” said Voskanyan.

The lawyer said Chakhalyan still intended not to participate in the closing hearing scheduled for October 30.

“No justice is taking place, and we have no hope for an objective verdict,” said Voskanyan.

If unsuccessful at the appeals court, the Chakhalyan defense plans to take the case to the cassation court in Georgia and further to the European Court of Human Rights.