David Tonoyan Issues Statement

Former Minister of Defense of Armenia, David Tonoyan, has issued a statement which we present below:

“On August 1, 2022, the President of Armenia signed the law on amendments and supplements to the law on Defense, which will come into force on August 13, 2022. Among other things, it establishes, as a previously absent legislative regulation, the norms and terms for the accumulation and operation (expenses) of military equipment, armaments, and other material and technical means by the government of Armenia, as well as the procedures for the approval of these norms and terms by the Minister of Defense of Armenia based on the proposal of the Chief of the General Staff.”

“Charges have been brought against me and others involved in the criminal case for allegedly acquiring missiles that did not comply with the required norms, knowing that by the time of their acquisition, the deadlines for the delivery of the missiles had already passed according to the order No. 296 by the Chief of Armaments of the Russian Air Force dated February 6, 1999. According to the inquiry carried out during the preliminary investigation, it became clear from the responses to the inquiries made to the special services of the partner country that the missiles were within the maintenance and operation deadlines as of 2018, which I am confident was also communicated to the Prime Minister of Armenia.”

“Even taking this into account, the charges against me have been maintained. To clarify, any state is obliged to adopt legal acts regarding the maintenance and operational conditions and deadlines of its own munitions. In the absence of such acts, it is customary to follow the legal regulations in the producer country, which should be adopted as a normative act/order by Armenia, a requirement that was not fulfilled in this case.”

“If the question arises why this was not done over the past 30 years, I must point out that there are no standardization, metrological, and industrial capabilities in Armenia to independently determine the maintenance periods of missiles as defined by the amendments and supplements to the law on Defense, and even after the adoption of these regulations, references will again be made to the standards of the munitions-producing countries.”

“Attempts have been made to correct the legal incompleteness or inadequacy in the Ministry of Defense of Armenia through the formation of commissions. As a result of relevant work done by one of these commissions, in 2016, by the order of the Minister of Defense of Armenia, the maintenance and operational period for the same type of missiles was extended by another 10 years.”

“To what extent do the new legal regulations in the law on Defense and other facts pertain to the charges brought against me when there was no legal act in Armenia that defined the maintenance periods for missiles at the time of their acquisition? In this case, the regulations set by the producer country, which established the maintenance period for missiles at 30 years, and the precedent practice of extending the periods of the same type of missiles by the Minister of Defense of Armenia in 2016 are used as grounds for analogy.”

“Moreover, there is also the fact that no funds were provided in return for the donated missiles, and under such conditions to accuse me of wastefulness, as well as that only 2.5 hours of judicial sessions have been held over 10 months, with no sessions at all in the last 4 months, raises serious questions. What is this, if not a ‘velvet’ political persecution wrapped in criminal procedural packaging... Finally, I would like to note that, besides the criminal case in court, I also intend to take appropriate steps to initiate a new criminal procedure under the new criminal procedural regulations to protect my rights.”