Afterwards, Don't Say You Weren't Warned: Statement by the Union of Retired NSS Officers

The Union of Retired NSS Officers has issued a statement:

“In recent days, the Union of Retired NSS Officers has received alarming reports that even before the start of the pre-election phase, domestic law enforcement agencies are raising false accusations against certain political figures for their opposition views. They are subjecting individuals to political persecution and dismissing employees from various sectors of the state system who do not objectively share the views of the current government. The situation has escalated to the point where they have even started to persecute human rights defenders who post anti-government comments on social media.

To achieve their goals, certain representatives of the law enforcement agencies, grossly violating and infringing upon the “Operational-Intelligence Activities” Law of the Republic of Armenia, are day and night busy soliciting permissions from courts for so-called “wiretaps,” that is, “internal surveillance” and “monitoring of telephone conversations.”

We would like to remind our law enforcement agencies that several measures specified by the Law on “Operational-Intelligence Activities” of the Republic of Armenia, including the aforementioned actions, can only be conducted if the individual targeted for such actions is suspected of committing a serious or particularly serious crime, and if there is reasonable evidence that obtaining the necessary information for the operational-intelligence activities, as ordained by law, is impossible through other means.

Furthermore, there must be credible operational data that a serious or particularly serious crime has been, or is being, prepared to be committed. In other words, the court should not be misled into thinking that this or that individual, due to their political activity or position, is suspected of committing a crime.

Let us move to the main point: All judges and heads of authorized bodies who have the authority to decide on operational-intelligence activities, and who violate current legislation, must take the above into account, realizing that they will soon be held accountable to the full extent of the law. We hope that you all understand the meticulous scrutiny that all bases for obtaining permission for such operations will undergo and that no such incidents will escape scrutiny.

Now, a brief historical excursion into the not-so-distant past of our neighbor: Following the defeat of Mikheil Saakashvili in the last elections, several dozen senior officers of Georgia’s law enforcement agencies, some of whom we are sure you are personally familiar with, faced criminal responsibilities and ended up in detention due to illegal and unfounded wiretapping. Don’t say you weren’t warned,” reads the statement.