‘Zhoghovourd’: Who and Why Assaulted Asleep Pashinyan in Prison

‘Zhoghovourd’ newspaper reports: On January 25, during a meeting with journalists in Kapan, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced that he had been recognized as a victim in a case under investigation by the Special Investigative Service (SIS). “In 2010, armed individuals attacked me in ‘Kosh’ prison. To be honest, when I became Prime Minister, I remembered that case. I was thinking about whether I should take an interest in that case or not. Then I thought, it’s embarrassing; now they will say that I started to get involved in my personal affairs,” Pashinyan shared, adding that recently a citizen has informed that he knows who organized the attack and has provided testimony.

We have not yet managed to find out who they are, as the SIS is not in a hurry to disclose this information. It is noted that it was officially announced that Pashinyan had a dream. And who were the officials in charge in 2010? The Minister of Justice was Hrayr Tovmasyan, the Head of the Prison Administration was Hayk Harutyunyan, who committed suicide in his apartment in 2019, while the warden of 'Kosh' prison, Lyova Baghdasaryan, was detained by the National Security Service (NSS) for bribery and was recently released on a bail of 5 million drams.

We attempted to clarify with the responsible parties who, why, and under whose orders Pashinyan was assaulted while asleep. We were unable to receive comments from Hrayr Tovmasyan, while former head of ‘Kosh’ penitentiary Lyova Baghdasaryan denied any connection to the incident.

More details in today’s issue of the newspaper.