Criminal Proceedings in the Wiretapping Case of Sasun Khachatryan and Arthur Vanetsyan Suspended: Case Remains Unresolved

The criminal proceedings initiated due to the wiretapping of the telephone conversation between the head of the Anti-Corruption Committee, Sasun Khachatryan, and former Director of the National Security Service, Arthur Vanetsyan, were suspended on April 10, 2021. This was reported in response to a written inquiry from Factinfo by the Investigative Committee of Armenia, which noted that the proceedings were halted because the identity of the wiretapper has not been established and they do not know whom to bring as a defendant.

As reported earlier, in September 2018, a recording of the wiretapped conversation between then Director of the NSS, Arthur Vanetsyan, and the head of the Anti-Corruption Committee was shared online, revealing that the investigation into the case of Armenia's second president, Robert Kocharyan, and others is under the supervision of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, and several procedural actions were agreed upon with him.

In response to the wiretapping of the phone conversations between Khachatryan and Vanetsyan, the Investigative Committee initiated two criminal cases in the main investigation department dealing with particularly important cases, one under the first part of Article 146 and the fourth point of the third part of Article 254 of the RA Criminal Code, and the other under the first part of Article 309 of the RA Criminal Code (abuse of official powers). The latter was terminated back in February 4, 2020, due to the absence of a crime, following the interrogation of Nikol Pashinyan.

Regarding the wiretapping case itself, it has been revealed that they have not been able to uncover it and decided to suspend the proceedings, although a year ago the president of the Investigative Committee, Hayk Grigoryan, stated that it was uncovered.

Recall that on June 9, 2020, during an interview with journalists, the president of the Investigative Committee, H. Grigoryan, declared, “The wiretapping case has been solved. But there is still no one arrested. I said last year that this case has been resolved, but it’s not concluded yet, because we sent a request for an investigation to several foreign partners about 8 months ago. Once we receive that, we will make a decision based on the summarized results.”

A year after this statement, in June 2021, Factinfo sent a written inquiry to the Investigative Committee requesting information about the progress of the criminal case, whether there are persons involved as defendants, suspects, or wanted, but it turned out that the case has actually not been uncovered.

“In response to your inquiry addressed to the head of the Investigative Committee, I inform you that the criminal proceedings in the case of the wiretapping of the phone conversations of Anti-Corruption Committee head Sasun Khachatryan and former NSS head Arthur Vanetsyan were suspended on April 10, 2021, based on the first point of the first part of Article 31 of the RA Criminal Procedure Code,” stated Hovhannes Hambaryan, the head of the department for investigating crimes related to human trafficking, sexual inviolability of minors, and illegal drug trafficking.

Noting that during the preliminary investigation of the criminal case, data has been obtained indicating that the wiretapping of telephone conversations was carried out outside the territory of Armenia, the committee’s officials have officially stated in writing that there are no persons with a procedural status of suspects or defendants in the criminal case, nor individuals who are wanted.

The response implies that either a year ago the president of the Investigative Committee disseminated false information by declaring that the wiretapping case had been solved, or it was indeed uncovered but the political authorities decided to cover it up rather than hold the guilty parties accountable.