The Attorney General Files Supreme Court Appeal Demanding the Dismissal of Nikol Pashinyan's Conviction

The Attorney General of Armenia, Artur Davtyan, has filed a supreme court appeal demanding the annulment of the conviction handed down to Nikol Pashinyan years ago, and seeking to exonerate him. This was reported by the Press Info agency, citing the Attorney General's office.

It should be recalled that Nikol Pashinyan was found guilty in connection with the March 1 disturbances. On January 19, 2010, the court of general jurisdiction in Yerevan, presided over by Judge Mnatsakan Martirosyan, found Pashinyan guilty under Article 225, Part 1 of the RA Criminal Code, which pertains to the organization of mass disturbances, and sentenced him to seven years in prison. Pashinyan was also accused under Article 316, Part 1 of the Criminal Code for using violence against a representative of the authorities, but he was acquitted on this count.

In 2022, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) issued a ruling in the case of “Pashinyan v. Armenia,” regarding the conviction of the applicant for participating in the protests following the presidential elections on February 19, 2008. It was determined that Pashinyan's rights to freedom and personal inviolability, as well as to freedom of assembly, had been violated, along with the state's obligation to respect his rights. Pashinyan did not request monetary compensation.

Importantly, the ECHR made this decision while Pashinyan was already serving as Prime Minister, thus he did not present objections on behalf of the Armenian government, allowing the ECHR to base its decision solely on Pashinyan's unilateral arguments. For this reason, the professional community has interpreted the ECHR ruling as a decision made in the case of “Nikol Pashinyan v. Nikol Pashinyan.” Without having the Armenian government's objections, the ECHR decided based solely on the arguments presented by the applicant, Nikol Pashinyan, that his rights had been violated, which then prompted the Attorney General to appeal to the Supreme Court.

“This was an imperative demand based on the recent ECHR ruling in that case. Accordingly, the Prosecutor's Office has filed an appeal to the Supreme Court of Armenia to annul the judicial acts issued in 2010 regarding Nikol Pashinyan in connection with the events of March 1-2, 2008, and to exonerate him from the actions attributed to him,” stated Gor Abrahamyan, advisor to the Attorney General on media relations, in a conversation with Press Info.