Such pressures on the judiciary did not exist in our time – Sharmazanov

A group of human rights defenders, public and political figures are holding a protest in front of the NSS building, where the daughters of Constitutional Court President Hrayr Tovmasyan are currently being interrogated.

“I have come to express my anger at this approach, where legal processes are mixed with political ones, and the political ones with family matters,” said Edward Sharmazanov, spokesperson for the Republican Party and former Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly.

“Why does anyone believe that this is a legal process? All those who, I apologize for the word, do not bow down to the regime become political persecuted individuals. The Constitutional Court is today the only state structure that does not dance to Nikol Pashinyan’s flute,” Sharmazanov continued.

In response to a journalist’s question, asking if there were no political persecutions during his party's rule, he stated: “Our government is in the past, and I have expressed my opinion. During our rule, no international specialized organization has pointed out that there are political prisoners in Armenia; during our rule, there have not been such pressures on the judiciary, and the head of state did not refer to judges as 'grovelers', nor did they lay 75-year-old fathers on the asphalt along with their children to bring them to the NSS.”