Vanetsian, who now leads a major opposition party, Ashot Minasian, a militia commander critical of the Armenian government, as well as two other oppositionists were detained in November 2020 amid anti-government protests in Yerevan sparked by Armenia’s defeat in the six-week war with Azerbaijan
The NSS charged them with plotting to kill Pashinian and overthrow his government. The NSS claimed to have found large quantities of weapons and ammunition in a property belonging to Minasian.
All four men rejected the charges as politically motivated before being freed by courts a few days later.
Vanetsian’s lawyers said on Tuesday that a senior NSS investigator has decided to close the criminal case against their client for lack of evidence.
“The decision made confirmed that there was no conspiracy to assassinate Nikol Pashinian or seize power,” the lawyers, Yervand Varosian and Lusine Sahakian, said in a joint statement.
Vanetsian, who headed the NSS from 2018-2019, described the yearlong probe as “yet another show staged against me.”
“For a whole year, the authorities claimed that ‘they tried to kill the prime minister’ and thereby justified the presence of armed people in the National Assembly,” he told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. “But as we can see, the criminal case opened one year ago … had nothing to do with reality. All steps taken by the authorities are aimed at protecting their power.”
Minasian was also cleared of the coup charges, according to his lawyer, Mihran Poghosian.
The prominent Karabakh war veteran was arrested as recently as on December 1. Poghosian said he continues to be accused of illegal arms possession and will therefore remain in detention for now. Minasian denies that accusation as well.
Earlier this year, the Armenian Ministry of Justice asked the country’s judicial watchdog to take disciplinary action against a judge who refused to issue an arrest warrant for Minasian in November 2020. The judge, Arman Hovannisian, described the move as government retribution for his decision.
The NSS did not comment on the latest developments. It was also not immediately clear whether the two other suspects were also cleared of the alleged coup plot.