Swiss Authorities Reject Legal Assistance Request in Case of Robert Kocharyan, Yuri Khachaturov, and Mikayel Harutyunyan, Classifying Charges as Political

The Special Investigative Service of Armenia utilized all possible measures during the preliminary investigation to examine the financial activities of the second President of Armenia, Robert Kocharyan, and former senior military officials Yuri Khachaturov and Mikayel Harutyunyan but was unable to find any evidence.

International partners also refused to cooperate, noting that the existing prosecution contains political components. Specifically, according to ‘Factinfo’, Armenian authorities had approached Switzerland requesting information on the bank accounts of the detained former officials—Kocharyan, Khachaturov, and Harutyunyan—related to the events of March 1-2, 2008, and to impose a freeze on those accounts, claiming they might have accounts in Switzerland.

It should be noted that the Investigative Committee did not assert that specific bank accounts exist in any particular bank but merely suggested that there might be account numbers in that country, to which Swiss authorities reacted sharply. Noting that Armenian authorities provided no factual data—neither account numbers, nor bank names, nor any other specific information—Swiss law enforcement emphasized that "it is impossible to proceed with the international assistance request dated August 14, 2018. In fact, this request does not provide sufficient details to consider the activities of the individuals in question as suspicious, nor does it provide evidence that funds are present in a Swiss bank. Moreover, the connection to Switzerland is not evident in the request, and the requested measures are formulated too broadly."

Furthermore, they observed that the reviewed request pertains to political violations. "According to Swiss law, Swiss authorities cannot grant an assistance request if it relates to a violation that constitutes a political or related offense for the requesting party," was stated in the response from Swiss authorities regarding the assistance request.

It is noteworthy that the Armenian authorities contacted Switzerland regarding the freeze of Kocharyan and others’ assets immediately after Kocharyan was detained when he was charged with overthrowing the constitutional order in 2008. Thus, even distant Switzerland recognized the political nature of the charges and declined to cooperate with Armenian authorities on this issue.

Instead, a formal letter was sent to the Armenian authorities explaining what legal conditions the assistance request should meet for them to consider it, along with an attached leaflet on the necessary content and conditions for an international assistance application. The scandalous document sent to Armenian authorities was signed by the Swiss Federal Office of Justice.