National Assembly Cannot Examine Armen Charentsyan's Immunity Issue, Hovhannisyan Clarifies in Interview with Factinfo

The National Assembly cannot examine the issue of Armen Charentsyan's immunity as it has not received the relevant request from the prosecutor's office. This was stated by Arthur Hovhannisyan, a member of the Civil Contract faction, in an interview with Factinfo.

It should be noted that the Court of Appeals of the Republic of Armenia, chaired by Rubik Mkhrtyan, has today upheld the prosecutor's appeal and decided to detain Armenian parliamentary member Armen Charentsyan, and this was done without revoking his parliamentary immunity.

Hovhannisyan explained that the case is within the judicial realm, thus a decision to discuss the parliamentarian's immunity must be made by the prosecutor's office: “From a legal standpoint, the law enforcement and judicial systems are functioning. If there was an issue regarding the discussion of immunity in the National Assembly, it would be discussed in accordance with the established legal procedures. However, since the criminal case was initiated before he became a member of parliament, I believe there is no legal issue in discussing the immunity matter in the National Assembly. The case is in the hands of law enforcement and the judicial system; if the judicial authority finds that there is a question of immunity to be discussed according to the law, then we will consider Mr. Charentsyan's immunity issue in the National Assembly. The National Assembly cannot decide whether to examine that issue until we have received the appropriate request from the prosecutor’s office,” stated Hovhannisyan.