I Have Submitted a Letter to the Special Investigative Service: Arsen Babayan

When I talk about legal certainty, the equality of all before the law, legitimate expectations, and many such crucial principles, I assume that many do not particularly value them and consider them merely as professional buzzwords, wrote human rights defender Arsen Babayan on his Facebook page.

“Now, let me try to present a more accessible example of what constitutes a legitimate expectation from the state and what its violation entails: Recently, the Special Investigative Service published information that a criminal case was initiated based on the Facebook post of Narek Samsonyan. I would like to remind that in that post, Narek Samsonyan referred to his source (without disclosing it) and narrated an act that contained information about an alleged criminal act. This refers to the well-known publication of black caviar.

Narek Samsonyan merely stated that he heard or knew of such an event, that some act had occurred. Samsonyan did not present any factual data regarding the alleged act. He provided no information that, in my opinion, would be a reason to verify the information through criminal procedure.

Before that story, as you may remember, I sent a letter consisting of 7 pages to the Prosecutor General of Armenia, where I presented all the factual circumstances that, in my opinion, attest to the existence of a crime. This concerned the numerous legal violations that occurred during the adoption of the notorious law on bribing Constitutional Court judges.

You would be surprised to learn what the Prosecutor's Office did. The Prosecutor’s Office simply returned my letter with one written response, which, as I mentioned, was composed of 7 pages of factual data. The Prosecutor's Office informed me in writing that I did not provide specific factual data about a crime in the letter.

I am sure you remember that letter, which detailed, with appropriate references and presentation of facts, all the violations (source). This is precisely an unlawful action when a criminal case is initiated based on a publication that does not express any specific information at all, while a professional document is returned with a letter that they actually have no right to issue.

Finally, I want to inform you that, based on the already known practice of the Special Investigative Service (regarding N. Samsonyan's post), I have resent the same letter to the Head of the Special Investigative Service. I expect that the Special Investigative Service will resolve the issue in accordance with due criminal procedure.