The official, Ruben Vartazarian, was suspended as chairman of the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) and charged with obstruction of justice in April 2021 amid rising tensions with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian. Pashinian’s political allies accused him of encouraging courts to free arrested government critics.
Vartazarian denied the charges and said that he was indicted as part of government efforts to replace him with Gagik Jahangirian, a controversial former prosecutor widely seen as a figure loyal to Pashinian.
Jahangirian was named as acting head of the SJC pending the outcome of the criminal investigation into Vartazarian. The investigation is still going on, according to law-enforcement authorities.
At a news conference held in Yerevan, Vartazarian released a secretly recorded audio of his conversation with Jahangirian and another SJC member, Stepan Mikaelian, which he said took place on February 20, 2021.
Armenia - Gagik Jahangirian, the acting chairman of the Supreme Judicial Council, at a news conference in Yerevan, August 2, 2021.
Jahangirian can be heard seemingly telling Vartazarian that he will not face criminal proceedings if he steps down as SJC chairman by March 1, 2021.
“I’m telling you, forget about everything, put aside everything, you have kids, you have a home,” Jahangirian says, adding that he does not want “bad things” to happen to Vartazarian.
Neither Jahangirian nor the SJC denied the authenticity of the 14-minute audio.
The judicial watchdog, which nominates judges and can also dismiss them, released a statement downplaying the significance of the audio. It said that it will not comment on the “private conversation” recorded without Jahangirian’s knowledge.
The acting head of the SJC told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service that he has nothing to add to the statement.
Armenia’s Office of the Prosecutor-General said, meanwhile, that it has instructed another law-enforcement agency to examine the recording and determine if there was indeed “illegal interference” in criminal investigations relating to Vartazarian.
Armenia - The Supreme Judicial Council holds a hearing in Yerevan, July 26, 2021.
Ever since Jahangirian took over the SJC, Armenian courts have rarely rejected arrest warrants sought by law-enforcement authorities for opposition figures prosecuted on various charges rejected by them as politically motivated. Independent and pro-opposition media outlets have regularly accused Jahangirian of pressuring judges to make such decisions. He denies that.
Jahangirian stated last August that Armenian courts must be purged of “people who have committed crimes against justice.” The 67-year-old himself had been accused of grave human rights abuses when serving Armenia’s chief military prosecutor from 1997-2006.
In recent months, Armenian opposition groups, lawyers and some judges have accused Pashinian’s government of seeking to increase government influence on courts under the guise of judicial reforms. The government says the reforms are on the contrary increasing judicial independence.
European diplomats signaled their continuing support for the declared reforms during a June 8 conference in Yerevan organized by the country’s Constitutional Court and the Council of Europe. Armenian opposition lawmakers were not allowed to take part in the conference.