Tonoian's Legal Team Issues Statement

The statement from David Tonoian's legal team states:

“We have received the court's decision to extend the detention period for David Tonoian. We reiterate that the decision is entirely unfounded, unsubstantiated, and unexplained, which is why we have filed an appeal for reconsideration, presenting our detailed objections to it. The appeal has been assigned to judge Tigran Simonian, and a court hearing is scheduled for December 17, 2021, at 15:00.

As we have previously noted, the investigating authority has left the appointed forensic, explosive technical-expert complex examination incomplete and, instead, has appointed a forensic technical examination. Along with that, no evidence has been obtained regarding the criminal case against David Tonoian to this day, and on the contrary, our request to conduct a relevant examination regarding the indicators of the preservation and operation of weapons has been rejected.

It is also noteworthy that the expert's conclusion and the entire criminal case circulate legal acts and documents concerning the terms of operation and maintenance of weapons that are not in force in the Republic of Armenia and are not validated or provided by RA legislation, which, according to the precedential law of the RA Court of Cassation, cannot serve as a basis for anyone's charge, including that of David Tonoian. These are documents from the USSR and the Russian Federation for internal use that have never been validated in the RA and can at best have purely advisory significance. Conversely, well before the weapons purchase transaction, a relevant order was issued by the RA Minister of Defense, regulating issues related to the terms of preservation or operation of ammunition, which was the basis for the purchase made in 2018.

This further proves once again that we are dealing with an unobjective investigation, and the investigating authority, with its selective and sometimes reality-detached interpretations of the facts, seeks by all possible and impossible means to justify David Tonoian's connection to the alleged act and to keep him in detention.”