Inquiry into officials' wiretapping gives rise to scepticism in Armenia

The record of a telephone conversation of the Director of the National Security Service (NSS) of Armenia with the head of the Special Investigating Service (SIS) posted on the YouTube contains elements of abuse of authority, investigators have suggested. The case opened under this article can be easily closed, the lawyer Ara Kazaryan believes.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on September 11, the record of the above telephone conversation of Arthur Vanetsyan, Director of the NSS, with Sasun Khachatryan, the head of the SIS, about the arrest of Robert Kocharyan and Yuri Khachaturov on the case of the dispersal of demonstrators, appeared on the YouTube.

The General Prosecutor's Office (GPO) of Armenia opened a criminal case under Article 309, Part 1, of the Criminal Code of Armenia (the commission by an official of deliberate actions, which are clearly beyond his/her authority), the GPO's spokesman told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent today.

The suspect within the new case has not yet been defined, Arevik Khachatryan, the head of the Public Relations Division of the GPO, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

Artak Kirakosyan, a human rights defender, in his Facebook page, has treated the initiation of the above criminal case as "democratic bacchanalia." "In Armenia, a criminal case has been instituted against the incumbent NSS head! Where this country is heading? It's democratic bacchanalia," Mr Kirakosyan writes.

The lawyer Ara Kazaryan has treated Article 309 as a sort of an "on duty article", suggesting that the criminal case "will be easily closed," the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent has reported.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on September 13, 2018 at 12:50 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.