Charges dropped against suspects in PM Pashinyan assassination attempt
All charges against the former head of the National Security Service of Armenia Artur Vanetsyan have been dropped. Vanetsyan was one of the suspects in the case of “an assassination attempt” on Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and “a conspiracy to usurp power”. The criminal prosecution was terminated due to the lack of evidence.
“According to the decision, no preparations for the usurpation of power or the murder of Nikol Pashinyan were made”, Vanetsyan’s lawyer Lusine Sahakyan wrote on her Facebook page.
Thus, the criminal prosecution has already been terminated in relation to all four suspects in this case. Among the suspects were:
member of the former ruling Republican Party of Armenia Vahram Baghdasaryan,
member of the ARF Dashnaktsutyun party Ashot Avagyan,
the commander of the Sisakan volunteer detachment Ashot Minasyan.
During the year, while the investigation was underway, law enforcement agencies were unable to find sufficient evidence of their guilt.
“Political persecution” – attorneys’ assessment
The case was launched immediately after the end of the second Karabakh war, when Armenia’s opposition, including the Hayrenik (Motherland) party of the former head of the National Security Service Artur Vanetsyan, began to demand the resignation of the head of the Armenian government. On the night of November 10, 2020, Pashinyan signed a trilateral statement on the cessation of hostilities in Karabakh. The opposition regarded this document as “a treacherous conspiracy and voluntary surrender of Karabakh to Azerbaijan” and began a series of protests.
On November 14, Artur Vanetsyan was detained, and, on November 15 the court released him from custody, considering the “decision to detain him unlawful”. His lawyers announced that the opposition politician is undergoing “shameful political persecution”. Vanetsyan himself stated that “he did not commit any crimes, and the authorities by their actions are trying to remove him from political processes”.
“A ‘show’ to preserve power ” – the assessment of the opposition
Arthur Vanetsyan still regards the accusation as a ‘show’, a ‘farce’ staged by Pashinyan’s team after the defeat in the war in order to preserve power:
“For a year now, the authorities, representatives of the authorities have been constantly saying that they tried to kill the Prime Minister, thereby justifying the presence of armed men [guards] in the National Assembly. When we said that no law enforcement agency could impede the activities of a National Assembly deputy, that force could not be used, they pointed at me and said that there were people in this room who were trying to kill the Prime Minister. Meanwhile, we saw that the criminal case initiated a year ago, the staging of this show, in fact, has nothing to do with reality”.
