Motion Submitted to Court in the Case of David Tonoyan

A motion has been submitted to terminate the criminal prosecution against former Minister of Defense David Tonoyan. This was announced during an interview with lawyer Sergey Hovhannisyan.

As previously reported, the National Security Service (NSS) announced the completion of the preliminary investigation into the case involving former Minister David Tonoyan, businessman David Galstyan, former Deputy Chief of the General Staff Stepan Galstyan, and four other individuals involved in the arms supply.

The NSS provided the defense with 8 days to familiarize themselves with the materials of a case consisting of 16 volumes. The deadline for reviewing the case materials has passed, and Tonoyan's lawyers have submitted a motion requesting the termination of the criminal prosecution against him.

“At this point, we can confirm that based on the analysis of the case materials, it is impossible to present the charges that have been laid,” noted the lawyer, adding that the description of the charges and the acts defined in the case materials do not hold up under the evidence, and on the contrary, the case materials provide entirely different data that contradicts the allegations.

Moreover, the prosecuting body declared the preliminary investigation completed without conducting explosive and product examinations. According to the lawyer, stating that a defective or unusable missile was acquired, without any evaluation of its quality and without any procedural actions to support this claim, is not compatible with legal standards.

The defense believes that the prosecuting authority left out these examinations, understanding that they would encounter issues with the investigation, as the conclusions would contradict the charges laid. The lawyer stated that numerous pieces of evidence exist in the criminal case materials that can be classified as “exculpatory,” and certain evidence was obtained at the initiative of the defense.

“Simply put, until the completion of the preliminary investigation, we were unable to access these materials, and they were not presented to the court by the investigator during the extension of the detention or preceding sessions. When we reviewed all the case materials, it became clear that the evidence that was crucial for discussing the detention issue was not presented to the court; only those parts that could somewhat justify Mr. Tonoyan's involvement were submitted,” Hovhannisyan noted.

During the preliminary investigation, David Tonoyan did not provide testimony, and there are no testimonies against him.

The nuance of the criminal case is that it is not mandatory for anyone to testify; the case revolves around transactions that are entirely documented, with the remaining questions pertaining to the examinations. All documents were seized and were under the control of the prosecuting authority. Regardless of what testimony anyone provided, it was evident from the documents what price was paid, how the acquisition occurred, who submitted the bids, and what negotiations took place regarding the price. Data already existed in the criminal case concerning all these matters,” Hovhannisyan stated.

Regarding the ban on David Tonoyan's visits, the lawyer mentioned that Tonoyan does not wish for the ban to be lifted, and no such motion has been submitted.

It should be noted that the NSS is conducting a criminal investigation into alleged abuses in the arms procurement process, specifically regarding the acquisition of defective and unusable missiles. A total of seven individuals, including former Minister of Defense David Tonoyan and arms supplier businessman David Galstyan (“Patron Davo”), as well as former Deputy Chief of the General Staff Stepan Galstyan, have been charged within the framework of the criminal case. According to a statement from the NSS, Tonoyan is charged under Article 179, Part 3 of the Armenian Criminal Code, which pertains to large-scale embezzlement.