Objections of Investigators Against Prosecutor's Instructions in the Case of Aghvan Hovsepyan Rejected

The objections raised by the Anti-Corruption Committee investigator against the prosecutor's instructions in the case of former Chief Prosecutor Aghvan Hovsepyan have been rejected.

As previously reported, the Anti-Corruption Committee had declared the completion of the pre-trial investigation in December without following the instructions of the overseeing prosecutor during the investigation. In particular, the defense team had submitted a motion during the pre-trial process, requesting that investigators and prosecutors who previously examined the case of Varsham Gharibyan related to ‘Shanti Yura’ be interrogated to ascertain whether Hovsepyan had indeed given instructions in favor of decisions made concerning Gharibyan. This would have allowed verification of the credibility of his statements, which appeared to be in the interest of the pre-trial authority if they were confident that Yura Gharibyan had provided truthful testimony and that the charges would be substantiated. However, the investigator rejected the motion.

A complaint was lodged by the defense against this decision to the prosecutor, who accepted the objection and instructed the investigator to conduct an inquiry regarding all the issues raised in the motion. Meanwhile, the body conducting the proceedings hastily declared the pre-trial investigation completed without interrogating the investigators and supervising prosecutors of the Shanti Yura case, thereby disregarding the prosecutor's instructions and failing to provide the parties with access to the case materials for review.

Before the investigator could present the prosecutorial conclusions to the prosecutor, the supervising prosecutor demanded the case materials and returned them in writing to the pre-trial authority for further investigation. The Anti-Corruption Committee declared that they disagreed with the prosecutor's instructions and raised objections, deeming them unfounded.

‘Factinfo’ contacted the Office of the Prosecutor General of Armenia, where it was reported that the pre-trial investigation continues within the framework of the prosecutor’s instructions related to the criminal case.

Regarding the objections of the Anti-Corruption Committee, the supervisory prosecutor discussed the objections raised, rejected them, and preserved the instructions for relevant procedural actions.

‘The investigator conducting the proceedings has been duly informed about the decision, and it has been instructed to ensure compliance with the requirements of the prosecutor’s legal instructions against which objections were raised,’ the Prosecutor's Office reported.

It is reminded that Aghvan Hovsepyan was arrested on September 7 in the morning. The pre-trial authority has charged Hovsepyan within the framework of a criminal case that has been under investigation for about 1.5 years and presented a motion to the court for detention as a measure of restraint, which was granted by Judge Mnatsakan Martirosyan. Moreover, the pre-trial authority has been unable to attribute any illegal activities to Hovsepyan related to his official duties, despite having held the highest leadership positions in law enforcement agencies for almost 45 years. He has been charged with conducting illegal entrepreneurial activities with the attributes of alleged money laundering.

When deciding on the detention, even the court noted that there was no likelihood of evading the investigation, and the basis for detention was indicated as his previously held high positions, suggesting he could influence the investigation without providing any actual examples.