5.  The applicant was born in 1954 and lives in Yerevan.
6.  On 11 March 2010 two individuals, S.T. and H.O., were arrested by the Georgian law-enforcement authorities in Tbilisi when they tried to sell 15 g of enriched uranium which they had transported from Armenia by train on the same day.
7.  In April 2010 the National Security Service of Armenia received information from the Georgian authorities that S.T. and H.O. had received the radioactive substance from the applicant. On 22 April 2010 the National Security Service instituted criminal proceedings in relation to the matter.
8.  On the same date the applicant was arrested on suspicion of having aided and abetted S.T. and H.O. in the offence. He was believed to have acquired the enriched uranium which he had then sold to H.O. in Yerevan. Thereafter, S.T. and H.O. had smuggled the radioactive substance to Tbilisi, where they had been arrested.
9.  On 23 April 2010 the applicant was charged with aiding and abetting S.T. and H.O. in the offence.
10.  The applicant denied the charges. His case was that H.O., whom he had known for about ten years, had owed him money for a long time. In February 2010 he had been robbed in Ukraine, and afterwards he had somehow reached Moscow to find a job but had then been obliged to return to Yerevan. However, since his money had been stolen, he had decided to ask H.O. (as the person who owed him money) to send him some money for his journey. After his return he had met H.O. in Yerevan several times in order to discuss financial matters relating to the payment of the rest of the debt.
11.  On 28 April 2010 H.O. was questioned as a witness at the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia. He stated that, inter alia, the applicant had given him 1 g of a radioactive substance in either 2002 or 2003. At the beginning of March 2010 he and S.T. had asked the applicant, who had been in Russia at the time, whether he would be able to obtain radioactive substances. During the conversation the applicant had enquired about the price per gram that had been offered for such a substance. The next day he had called H.O. and offered to bring the requested radioactive substance to Armenia. Since the applicant had had no means to travel, they had transferred money to him. The applicant had arrived in Armenia several days later and given the radioactive substance to H.O. They had agreed that H.O. would pay the applicant after the deal. When asked whether he owed any money to the applicant, H.O. denied ever having borrowed from him.
12.  On 29 April 2010 S.T. was also questioned as a witness at the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia. He stated, inter alia, that when he had been in Georgia, some people had offered to buy uranium from him. He had then gone to Armenia and asked H.O. to find the applicant so that he could provide them with uranium. S.T. further stated that H.O. had been in contact with the applicant, who had agreed to come to Armenia and give him uranium. Thereafter they had sent travel money to the applicant by bank transfer. He had then met H.O. at the railway station. H.O. had brought the radioactive substance back to Georgia and stated that he had taken it from the applicant.
13.  On 8 December 2010 the bill of indictment was finalised and the case was transferred to the Tavush Regional Court for trial. The following evidence was relied on in the bill of indictment: the witness statements made by S.T. and H.O. in Georgia; other witness statements, in particular those of K.O. and V.G., made in Armenia; the conclusion of a forensic examination conducted in Georgia, according to which the substance seized from S.T. contained enriched uranium; regular telephone correspondence between the applicant and H.O. in the period between 1 September 2009 and 30 March 2010, and in particular two telephone calls made on 10 March 2010; and the relevant exit and entry stamps in the applicant’s passport proving that he had arrived in Yerevan from Moscow on 10 March 2010.
14.  At one of the hearings before the Regional Court, relying, inter alia, on the Strasbourg Convention of 1959 on Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters, the applicant requested the temporary transfer of S.T. and H.O. from the prison in Georgia so that they could be examined at the trial.
15.  His request was granted. Thus, on 27 January 2011 the presiding judge ordered S.T.’s and H.O’s temporary transfer to Armenia.
16.  By a letter of 29 April 2011, the Ministry of Justice of Georgia, refused to grant the request by referring to Article 11 § 1(b) of the Strasbourg Convention, which states that a request for assistance may be refused if “his or her presence is necessary at criminal proceedings pending in the territory of the requested Party”. The Ministry of Justice added that S.T.’s and H.O.’s had been convicted by a judgment of the Tbilisi Court of Appeal of 30 March 2011, but that the judgment was still open to an appeal on points of law.
17.  On 6 May 2011 the applicant’s representative allowed the Regional Court to continue with the examination of the case even if S.T. and H.O. could not be transferred to Armenia, since the applicant was ill. However, he asked the court not to rely in its judgment on the testimony given in Georgia by those absent witnesses.
18.  At a hearing of 24 May 2011 the presiding judge informed the parties of the reply received from the Ministry of Justice of Georgia.
19.  At the same hearing the applicant asked to summon S.G. – the conductor of the train who had been questioned during the investigation – as a witness, on the grounds that some of his statements were in contradiction with the statements of S.T. and H.O. The trial court rejected that application, considering it unfounded.
20.  On 25 May 2011 the Regional Court convicted the applicant and sentenced him to seven years’ imprisonment, and ordered the confiscation of his property. In doing so, the Regional Court relied on the statements of S.T. and H.O. made during the questioning in Georgia; the statements of the witnesses V.D. and K.O. – the applicant’s friend and H.O.’s daughter respectively; the results of forensic examinations carried out in Georgia and Armenia confirming that the substance discovered contained enriched uranium; the evidence of telephone correspondence between the applicant and H.O.; and the existence of exit and entry stamps in the applicant’s passport proving that he had arrived in Yerevan from Moscow on 10 March 2010.
21.  The applicant lodged an appeal, complaining, inter alia, about the lack of opportunity to cross-examine S.T. and H.O. at trial and about the trial court’s refusal to summon S.G.
22.  On 13 July 2011 the Criminal Court of Appeal upheld the applicant’s conviction. The judgment did not address the applicant’s arguments regarding the fact that S.T. and H.O. could not be examined and the refusal to examine witness S.G.
23.  The applicant lodged an appeal on points of law, raising similar arguments to those put forward in the previous appeal.
24.  By a decision of 17 September 2011 the Court of Cassation declared the applicant’s appeal on points of law inadmissible for lack of merit.