Rejecting the Criminal Case is a Result of Political Influences: Khajakyans

Member of the Yerevan City Council faction 'Lus' David Khajakyans made the following post on his Facebook page: 'Dear colleagues, on January 13, I was notified by the Special Investigative Service (SIS) that the initiation of a criminal case regarding the mayor and his deputy's official powers and official forgery had been rejected. After studying the 38-page rejection decision, I am noting the following:— the investigating body did not conduct a comprehensive examination of the case. The circumstances pointed out in my explanation were not revealed, and even the official, whose information was crucial for the initiation of the case, was not summoned for clarification, which I had specifically presented in writing;— many questions remain unanswered in the provided explanations, which the investigator ignored. There are numerous contradictory claims, the resolution of which the investigating body has given in favor of the executive officials of the municipality, demonstrating bias in weighing the facts;— the SIS investigator hastily made assessments of phenomena that could not have been revealed at this stage;— and finally, the SIS has reserved legal assessments that it could not provide and which have created favorable conditions for the representatives of the mayor’s office.

Taking all this into account, I believe that the rejection of the initiation of a criminal case by the SIS is a result of political influences, which attempt to cover up the criminal nature of the actions committed. Perhaps Pashinyan could not allow his team’s mayor, even in a declining case, to have the status of a defendant.

In my public statements, I have never said that the involved individuals must necessarily be convicted or, moreover, imprisoned. That is a matter for the court to decide. However, even the rejection of the initiation of a criminal case deprives me, as a member of the city council overseeing the mayor’s activities, of the expectation that violations will be revealed through the actions of law enforcement agencies in the path of restoring justice. Even if the mayor, as anticipated, dismisses the head of staff Vahé Khachatryan for negligence in administration, I will still not consider the issue resolved because the main actors who initiated all of this will not face a fair investigation.

I will submit a higher-level appeal to the Prosecutor General in accordance with the law, demanding the annulment of this decision and the initiation of a criminal case. After all, I am interested in whether the insiders are privileged or not.'