Smbat Ayvazyan Acquitted and Recognized Innocent in March 1 Case

The commander of the Tigran the Great volunteer battalion, Smbat Ayvazyan, who was convicted in the March 1 case, has been acquitted. This decision was made today by the Court of Cassation presided over by Lilith Tadevossian.

Thus, the court decided to recognize Smbat Ayvazyan as innocent and to acquit him, discontinuing the criminal proceedings due to the absence of a criminal act.

A complaint against the court verdicts issued regarding Smbat Ayvazyan during 2008-2009 was submitted by the Chief Prosecutor of Armenia, Artur Davtyan. On November 19, 2008, by court verdict, Ayvazyan was found guilty under part 4 of Article 235 and part 1 of Article 316 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Armenia.

He was charged with illegally carrying a striking and crushing cold weapon, specifically a spring-loaded baton, which, according to the materials of the criminal case, was discovered during a personal search on February 24, 2008. Additionally, he did not comply with the legal requirements of the police officers who transported and returned him to the expert center, resisted them, threatened them with violence, and inflicted non-life-threatening harm on one of them by striking him several times in the chest.

For these actions, Smbat Ayvazyan was sentenced to a fine equivalent to 300 times the minimum wage and 2 years of imprisonment.

Smbat Ayvazyan, a former member of the Armenian Supreme Council and the National Assembly, as well as a former Minister of Revenues, was released on amnesty in June 2009. He passed away in 2014.