The lawmaker, Hovik Aghazarian, found himself under criminal investigation and was ousted from Civil Contract after declining Pashinian’s resignation “request” texted to him on November 17. On December 3, Pashinian shared with senior party members transcripts of Aghazarian’s personal communication stored in his mobile phone confiscated by a law-enforcement agency. They accused him of leaking classified information to media.
Another Civil Contract parliamentarian, Hakob Aslanian, denounced on December 11fellow members of Pashinian’s political team for using Aghazarian’s private data for political purposes. Aslanian, who is a friend of Aghazarian, said he too read the transcripts but found no state secrets or other sensitive information in them. He said he is therefore suspending his party membership in protest.
Although Aslanian backtracked on that statement a few hours later, Pashinian’s party swiftly ousted him from its parliamentary group. During a meeting chaired by Pashinian late on Tuesday, the party’s governing board also terminated his membership in the party. The 70-year-old lawmaker, who has been known for his controversial statements defending Pashinian’s government, did not comment on the widely anticipated decision.
Pashinian stated on December 4 that “political, moral, and other levers” will be used to strip Aghazarian of his parliament seat. The only legal way of doing that is to lift his immunity from prosecution and convict him of a crime.
Armenia’s Anti-Corruption Committee (ACC), the agency that controversially made the mobile phone data available to Pashinian, opened on Monday a new criminal case against Aghazarian. The latter’s lawyer suggested that Prosecutor-General Anna Vardapetian will likely ask the parliament next month for permission to indict and even arrest his client.
Aghazarian on Tuesday denounced the criminal proceedings and said he remains determined to hold on to this parliament seat.