The current authorities pursue the goal of ‘locking up’ everyone who committed a crime during the deadly postelection unrest in 2008, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said on Thursday, reacting to the remarks of former President Robert Kocharian, a key suspect in the case.
Kocharian, who faces charges of breaching the constitution in connection with the events which happened a decade ago and in which 10 people were killed, yesterday commented on the wiretapped telephone conversations between National Security Service (NSS) Director Artur Vanetsian and Special Investigation Service head Sasun Khachatrian that were leaked to the media earlier this week in an apparent attempt to compromise the Pashinian government by showing that despite its pledges not to influence the judiciary it exerted pressure and guided at least one judge who approved the arrest of the ex-president on July 28.
Kocharian, who was released from pretrial detention on August 13 following a decision by an appeals court that found that the Armenian constitution gives him immunity from prosecution, accused the current administration of carrying out a political persecution against him.
“All our predictions, all our statements that the case is politically motivated, that this is a case of political persecution are proved by these telephone conversations. [They prove that] this has nothing to do with the investigation of the March 1, 2008 events and has one goal, as they say themselves, to lock me up,” the ex-president said in an interview with the “Yerevan. Today” website.
Speaking in parliament on Wednesday Pashinian, however, insisted that there was nothing about the conversations that could be used to compromise him or Armenia’s security services. He stressed that it was the judge who called the NSS chief and not vice versa. Pashinian said that after becoming prime minister he never made a secret of the fact that “judges, who are not used to working independently, continue to call and ask for guidance.” He gave assurances, however, that he remained committed to his earlier pledge not to interfere in the work of Armenian judges and courts.
Earlier Pashinian strongly condemned the wiretapping of the country’s officials, describing it as “a conspiracy and a crime against Armenian statehood.” He ordered a probe to “identify the conspirators as soon as possible and hold them accountable in the strictest terms.”
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