Investigator and Prosecutor Disagree on the Quality of Ara Babloyan's Actions: Head of Special Investigation Service

The former President of the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia, Ara Babloyan, and the former Deputy Chief of Staff of the National Assembly, Arsen Babayan, are at the center of a disagreement between the investigator and the prosecutor regarding the quality of their actions. This was stated by Sassoun Khachatryan, the head of the Special Investigation Service, in an interview with Armenpress.

“The investigator and the prosecutor have a disagreement regarding the legal qualification of the actions of the accused. There is no controversy regarding the evidence obtained. We have received a directive from the prosecutor’s office; our objection was rejected, and we will naturally reclassify under the article indicated by the prosecutor,” Khachatryan noted, adding that they received the case on February 21.

Previously, the supervising prosecutor for the criminal case involving the former President of the National Assembly, Ara Babloyan, and the former Deputy Chief of Staff of the National Assembly, Arsen Babayan, had rejected the investigator's objection regarding the non-approval of the indictment and the decision to return the case.

The supervising prosecutor did not approve the indictment in the criminal case of Ara Babloyan and Arsen Babayan, considering that the actions of the accused were incorrectly qualified. The prosecutor overseeing the legality of the pre-trial investigation made a decision to return the case to the investigator for additional examination, as the actions of the accused were not properly classified according to the charges under Article 300, Part 1, and Article 314, Part 1 of the RA Criminal Code for Ara Babloyan and Article 38-300, Part 1, and Article 314, Part 1 for Arsen Babayan.

According to the prosecutor, with the sufficient combination of evidence obtained during the pre-trial investigation, the actions of Ara Babloyan appear to correspond to the crimes provided for in Article 308, Part 2, and Article 314, Part 1 of the RA Criminal Code, while Arsen Babayan's actions correspond to the features of crimes specified in Article 38-308, Part 2, and Article 314, Part 1.

The investigator of the Special Investigation Service had submitted a proposal against the directive to change the charges concerning Ara Babloyan and Arsen Babayan.