Lawyer Comments on the Charges Against David Tonoyan

The charges brought against former Armenian Minister of Defense David Tonoyan are baseless and unsubstantiated, stated David Tonoyan's lawyer Sergey Hovhannisyan in an interview with 'Factinfo'.

As previously reported, David Tonoyan is accused of embezzling 2,277,323,840 AMD and committing fraud and public endangerment offenses. The prosecuting body submitted a request to the court to choose detention as a preventive measure, which was granted by the judge Mnatsakan Martirosyan. Following the announcement of the detention decision, David Tonoyan was transferred to 'Yerevan-Center' Penitentiary, where he is currently held.

Lawyer Sergey Hovhannisyan deemed the decision to detain David Tonoyan unfounded, noting that the appeal against it has already been prepared but has not yet been registered. The court of first instance deemed the likelihood of obstructing the investigation as the basis for detention, which, according to the lawyer, was interpreted purely based on Tonoyan's reputation.

Within the framework of the appeal, the defense disputes both the existence of reasonable suspicion and the basis for detention, arguing that there is a lack of supporting evidence. Although the lawyer did not provide specific details, he assured that the defense's counterarguments are more numerous than those supporting the basis for detention.

Regarding the investigative actions involving David Tonoyan, the lawyer noted that Tonoyan has not provided any testimony, and no investigative actions have been conducted since the court's decision.

When asked if there are testimonies against David Tonoyan that support the charges, the lawyer replied that there is no evidence in that regard. He expressed a desire to understand the basis of the accusations, stating that this aspect is still unclear even to the defense.

“We have a problem with the correct qualification of the act. That is, even if they accept that an act exists, there cannot be any criminal-legal evaluation of that act,” the lawyer emphasized. “I can't provide further details now, but we will definitely revisit this matter and elaborate later. The charges are both unfounded and unsubstantiated,” he added.

In response to whether they believe the act was improperly qualified, the lawyer clarified that it is not that the act was incorrectly qualified; rather, a non-criminal act was evaluated as a criminal act.

Asked whether they deny the official information regarding the embezzlement of more than 2 billion AMD, the lawyer refrained from commenting, stating that providing additional information at this moment is not appropriate.

It is worth noting that former Minister of Defense David Tonoyan and businessman David Galstyan, known as Patron Davon, have been arrested as part of a criminal case investigated by the National Security Service (NSS). A request for detention has been submitted to the court, which has been granted. According to a statement from the NSS, David Tonoyan and David Galstyan have been charged with embezzlement of 2,277,323,840 AMD and committing fraud and public endangerment offenses.