ArmInfo. Former Deputy Chief of Staff of the Parliament Arsen Babayan intends to seek an end to his criminal prosecution. Recall that he was charged with part 1 of article 38-300 (complicity in usurping state power) and part 1 of article 314 (official forgery) of the RA Criminal Code.
At a November 14 press conference, Babayan noted that the criminal case, in fact, has a political connotation and is a "shameful lawlessness". According to him, this case, in principle, could not be opened on the basis of the act of amnesty.
<The purpose of these actions is to achieve the resignation of Hrayr Tovmasyan from the post of head of the Constitutional Court, and later on of all other judges of the Constitutional Court (except for one or two people). In order to achieve this, the political authorities do not stop at anything, and they do not care who will be imprisoned. After spending 22 days under unlawful arrest, I consider myself a hostage to the authorities>, he said.
Babayan emphasized that he would fight for the termination of the criminal prosecution by all available legal methods, since it was "initially carried out on illegal grounds".
Noting that he continues to believe in a fair judicial system in Armenia, he, meanwhile, did not exclude the likelihood that the court would sentence him to 15 years in prison. "But I suppose that I will spend only two years behind bars because there is a European Court of Human Rights," he said.
Speaking about plans for the future, Babayan said that he plans to engage in human rights activities. According to the investigation, the former head of the Constitutional Court Gagik Harutyunyan, whose term of office (70 years) was supposed to end on March 23, 2018, signed a statement addressed to the NA Speaker Ara Babloyan on the resignation of the post of the President of the Constitutional Council, which was dated March 1 2018 year. The then NA Speaker Ara Babloyan, having not officially received this statement by Gagik Harutyunyan, on March 2 illegally signed and made a statement on the resignation of the head of the Constitutional Court Gagik Harutyunyan. Otherwise, the President of the National Assembly would not have been able to announce the resignation of the President of the Constitutional Assembly before the next ordinary sitting of the National Assembly on March 20, 2018.
It should be noted that in the conditions of observing the three-day period provided for by the law, after that it would be impossible to appoint Hrayr Tovmasyan as the head of the Constitutional Court, since before this a regular meeting of the National Assembly was not provided. As a result, favorable conditions were created for the process of nominating and appointing Hrayr Tovmasyan to the vacant post of head of the Constitutional Court.
In this case, Ara Babloyan was prosecuted as part of a criminal case against usurpation of state power. A recognizance not to leave was chosen as a preventive measure.