David Tonoyan's Case to Move to Anti-Corruption Court: Details

The newspaper "Zhoghovurd" reports that it is not excluded that the criminal case against former Armenian Defense Minister David Tonoyan and officials from the General Staff may not be heard in the general jurisdiction court of Yerevan.

It is possible that the case will be transferred from Judge Manvel Shahverdyan's jurisdiction to the Anti-Corruption Court, and the proceedings will continue in the new court. This matter is under discussion within the judicial system, and the issue of transfer has been raised following amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code.

It’s not excluded that Judge Manvel Shahverdyan's practice of scheduling court hearings late and postponing sessions for various reasons was related to this circumstance. As is known, the court session scheduled for June 27 regarding former Minister David Tonoyan was postponed due to Judge Shahverdyan visiting an embassy.

After that, it was expected that the next court session would be scheduled promptly; however, it turned out that Judge M. Shahverdyan has gone on his annual vacation, and the next court session has been set for August 8, 2022, which is about two months after the last scheduled court session.

The court hearings in the case of David Tonoyan and others began in January, and in the past six months, a "complete and normal" court session has not taken place for this case.

For more details, refer to today’s edition of the newspaper.