Charchyan is in custody without any proper legal basis, Vardevanyan

The former director of Izmirlian Medical Center and MP from the Armenia faction, Armen Charchyan, has not seen any new developments in his criminal case. The only update is that Charchyan has been free for over a month and has assumed his parliamentary mandate. This was stated today at a press conference by Aram Vardevanyan, a member of the National Assembly from the Armenia faction, commenting on the decision to re-arrest Charchyan.

“These two circumstances, which exclude detention as a preventive measure, have had zero significance for today’s judicial system,” noted the MP.

According to Vardevanyan, there is an impression that parliamentary immunity is of significant importance for the opposition faction, which he claims is absolutely not the case.

“I can say they should remove that immunity from the Constitution, but it is absurd when that norm becomes equivalent to non-existence, simply based on the whims of prosecutors and investigators. This is a behavior that directly interferes with the reputation of the legislative power, which has never happened before,” he stated, emphasizing that Armen Charchyan is currently in a status of detention without any proper legal grounds.

“This is a manifestation of the behavior of this authority to constantly reach new, unparalleled heights of legal lawlessness. Future investigators and prosecutors will be told what kinds of cases should not be and how a judge departs from justice or has no relation to it,” Vardevanyan added, stressing that an MP can only be deprived of freedom with the consent of the National Assembly.

It should be noted that today the Court of Appeals, presided over by Judge Rubik Mkhtaryan, upheld the Prosecutor’s Office's appeal against the decision to release Charchyan on bail, thus annulling the decision of the First Instance Court and maintaining the detention measure selected against Charchyan in the pre-trial proceedings.