No Criminal Circumstances Found Regarding Marutyan's Statements

During a session of the Yerevan Council, following investigations into the statements made by former Yerevan Mayor Hayk Marutyan, no information indicating specific criminal actions, supporting circumstances, or factual data has been discovered.

In response to an inquiry from Armenpress, the adviser to the Prosecutor General, Gor Abrahamyan, stated that on December 22, during a notable session of the Yerevan Council, certain members made statements related to the upcoming vote aimed at dismissing Mayor Hayk Marutyan, leveraging what they claimed to be their real or alleged influence over other faction members.

“There were statements made that contained apparent indications of official misconduct attributed to Hayk Marutyan regarding receiving phone calls from high-ranking officials about dismissing individuals from their positions or obtaining privileges for their relatives. In this regard, the Prosecutor General's Office received a report from the programs coordinator of the NGO ‘Informing Citizens', Daniel Ioannisyan.

The Prosecutor General's Office forwarded both relevant media publications and the report presented by the NGO to the Armenian Police's Investigation Department for verifying the mentioned circumstances,” said Abrahamyan.

He noted that based on the results of the investigative actions, materials have been prepared regarding the alleged illegal influence exerted by the leaders of the ‘My Step’ faction on certain members of the faction in accordance with Articles 180-181 of the Armenian Criminal Procedure Code.

“It has been revealed (including through the explanations of a former council member who resigned from their mandate) that during meetings and subsequent discussions with faction members, the leader and secretary of the ‘My Step’ faction communicated the political stance of the faction regarding expressing distrust in the Yerevan Mayor and demonstrating unity on this matter; however, no criminal influence was exerted, thus the actions of these individuals lack the elements of the crimes specified by Articles 311.2 (Using real or alleged influence), 308 (Abuse of office), and 309 (Exceeding official powers) of the Armenian Criminal Code. A decision has been made to reject the initiation of a criminal case in this regard,” Abrahamyan announced.

As for the outcomes of the investigative actions regarding Hayk Marutyan's statements, Abrahamyan noted that they have been left without consequence. “The issue is that during the examination of the circumstances mentioned by him, Hayk Marutyan was invited to the Criminal Police of the Republic of Armenia; however, when he appeared, he refused to provide a report or any explanations. He indicated that he could not specify particular individuals or circumstances regarding general instances of being called by someone for various inquiries and mediations, and spoke in a manner that merely indicated his ideological and principled approaches, hence he cannot provide any information or clarifications related to those cases and does not wish to report a crime. Therefore, the investigations conducted in this regard revealed no information indicating specific criminal characteristics, nor were there any supporting circumstances or factual data found,” Abrahamyan concluded.