Criminal prosecution against leader of the opposition “With Honor” Faction of the National Assembly of Armenia, leader of Homeland Party Artur Vanetsyan has been dismissed due to absence of corpus delicti. This is stated in the statement issued by Vanetsyan’s defense attorneys Lusine Sahakyan and Yervand Varosyan.

“One year, one month and ten days…

This is exactly how long former Director of the National Security Service of Armenia, leader of Homeland Party, deputy of the National Assembly, leader of the “With Honor” Faction Artur Vanetsyan was subjected to illegal criminal prosecution for preparing the assassination of a statesman [Nikol Pashinyan] and usurping power.

Alongside criminal prosecution, Vanetsyan was detained, a motion was filed with the court to select arrest as a pre-trial measure, after which the attempts to arrest Vanetsyan continued in the Court of Appeal and Cassation Court. Searches were conducted in not only his apartment, but also in his parents’ apartment and in the office of the Homeland Foundation for Development. A video with a horrifying voice telling about the group preparing the assassination of Nikol Pashinyan was broadcast on television from time to time. During this whole period, there was a pre-trial measure against Vanetsyan, and his movement was restricted.

Since the very first day of examination of this criminal case, it was clear that we are dealing with allegations that are phony and not sufficiently grounded. Even the decision of the court on rejecting the motion for selecting arrest as a pre-trial measure against Vanetsyan confirmed that there is no substantiated suspicion that Vanetsyan might be linked to the acts ascribed to him.

And in such conditions, only by the decision rendered by an investigator of the Investigation Department of the National Security Service of Armenia of 24 December 2021 was the criminal prosecution against Vanetsyan terminated under a particular article of the Criminal Code of Armenia, due to absence of corpus delicti, and the selected pre-trial measure was lifted. The rendered decision shows that there was no preparation for the assassination of Nikol Pashinyan or preparation for usurpation of power at all,” the statement reads.