Category: 2022

Armenia’s former Prosecutor General Aghvan Hovsepyan, who is currently under arrest, has been taken to Izmirlian Medical Center in Yerevan, the secretary said at a court hearing in his trial on Thursday.

"In the absence of the defendant, the hearing must be postponed, but some motions have been filed by the defense lawyers, which can be heard in his absence," said presiding judge Mnatsakan Martirosyan.

In late June, the court denied a defense motion to release the former official on bail.

Aghvan Hovsepyan was arrested in September 2021 on charges of bribery, money laundering and illegal entrepreneurial activity denied by him.

Hovsepyan also ran the Investigative Committee from 2014 to 2018.

French-Armenian community leader and ARF Bureau member Mourad Papazian is taking legal action against the Armenian authorities over the decision to ban him from entering Armenia, he said in a social media post on Thursday.

“I have decided to start legal proceedings to restore my rights, entrusting MP Artsvik Minasyan to represent me in the court and asking lawyer Siranush Sahakyan to take the necessary legal action,” he wrote.

Papazian noted that Minasyan sent a letter to the National Security Service on July 25 asking it to scrap the ban.

“Under the law, the NSS has five days to respond to it, and based on that we will decide our further steps,” he added.

Papazian, a co-chairman of the Coordination Council of Armenian Organizations of France (CCAF), was barred from entering Armenia on July 13 after his plane landed at Yerevan's Zvartnots Airport. 

One of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s unnamed aides said that Papazian was barred from entering Armenia under the domestic law because he was one of the organizers of the attack on Pashinyan’s motorcade in Paris on June 1, 2021. Papazian denies the accusations.

Opposition activist and public figure Avetik Chalabyan's brother, Ara Chalabyan, has stepped down from his position as head of the Armenian Central Bank’s Corporate Services and Development Directorate.

He announced his resignation on Facebook on Thursday without giving any reasons for it.

“Starting today I am no longer working at the Central Bank of Armenia, where I have been for quite a time, received and gave back a lot. I celebrate the freedom in my life and will conquer the world as one of my good colleagues likes to say,” he wrote.

Avetik Chalabyan was released from custody late on Wednesday more than two months after being arrested on charges rejected by him as politically motivated.

Artsakh’s State Minister Artak Beglaryan on Thursday chaired the second meeting of the State Council for the Protection of Cultural Heritage in Occupied Territories of the Artsakh Republic.

Beglaryan praised the fact-finding activities carried out in a brief period following the formation of the council and discussed the upcoming activities with the council members, his office reported.

The list of collections of museums and exhibition halls fallen in the territories occupied by Azerbaijan was confirmed.

An interested discussion was held regarding the implementation of various research and information activities.

MP Tigran Abrahamyan of the opposition Pativ Unem bloc says Azerbaijan’s recent increased ceasefire violations in Artsakh and on the border with Armenia are attributed to a number of factors.

“In the post-war period, the parties are forming new borderlines, which implies a race for gaining favorable positions,” he wrote on Facebook on Friday.

“By and large, immediately after the war Azerbaijan, taking advantage of the political connivance and silence of the Armenian authorities, has solved its main task, gaining tactical and strategic advantage at the key points. There are some areas where the positional struggle is still going on, which is marked by changes in the situation,” the MP said.

Abrahamyan insists that Azerbaijan is using its positional advantage and constantly reminding the Armenian authorities that in case of non-compliance with their promises and agreements it will resort to force again.

“Due to the so-called seasonal nature of engineering work, the activity on the frontline has increased, which inevitably leads to various escalations,” he said.

“Azerbaijan views any movement of the Armenian troops, from internal redeployments to infrastructure changes on the border, as an attempt of revenge and shows that it is ready to stop it at any cost.

“Azerbaijan constantly reminds us that the war is not over, its ambitions are far from being met, and regardless of the Armenian authorities’ conciliatory policy, the pressure will continue, while the demands put forward to them will expand,” the lawmaker charged.

The Constitutional Court of Armenia has applied to the Venice Commission, requesting its advisory opinion on the controversial law on forfeiture of illegal assets, lawyer Ara Ghazaryan said on Thursday.

“The matter concerns the provisions which have been much talked about since the draft law was adopted, including the presumption of illegal origin of the property, the regulation of placing the burden of proof on the defendant, the lack of a standard of proof in the law, and their contradiction with human rights (in this case, property rights),” he wrote on Facebook.

"In general, the problem is getting complicated and tangled up, which was predicted by many experts. At the same time, on the basis of what law did the Constitutional Court request an advisory opinion of an international organization? Shouldn't all the initiated court cases under the law be suspended?" Ghazaryan said.

Opposition activist Avetik Chalabyan on Friday again rejected the charges levelled against him as trumped-up and politically motivated, echoing his allegations against Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.

Speaking to reporters ahead of a court hearing in his trial, he reiterated Pashinyan is “persecuting” him and his family.

Chalabyan, a co-founder of the Arar Foundation and a member of the Consolidation Movement, was placed under arrest on 14 May for allegedly trying to pay students of the Armenian National Agrarian University to participate in anti-government protests in Yerevan. He was released from custody after his arrest period expired on Wednesday.

“This is obviously political persecution against me ordered by Nikol Pashinyan, which also targets some members of my family,” he said.

The oppositionist stated that his brother, Ara Chalabyan, who led the Armenian Central Bank’s Corporate Services and Development Directorate, was forced to step down on Thursday under strong pressure from the government.

Chalabyan reiterated that he had been illegally held in custody for more than two months, adding he was released on Wednesday because the duration of his arrest period expired while the prosecutors could not ask presiding judge Arusyak Aleksanyan to extend it after a court hearing in his case was postponed. He said he may be rearrested at Friday’s hearing.