The Dismissal of Prison Service Chief Sergey Atomyan is Linked to David Tonoyan. "Zhoghovurd"

"Zhoghovurd" newspaper reports: "According to the newspaper’s sources, the removal of Sergey Atomyan, the head of the Armenian Ministry of Justice’s Penitentiary Service, had deep roots, but a specific move he made became decisive.

The newspaper previously reported that the law enforcement system considered Atomyan a weak leader and made significant discoveries during his tenure. His dismissal was delayed due to Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan not having a suitable replacement; however, on August 1, he made a secret decision that led to him being immediately dismissed from his position on the directive of Pashinyan.

According to information reaching the newspaper, on August 1, when former Minister of Defense David Tonoyan was transported from the NSS isolation facility to the meeting of the National Assembly’s investigative committee, Tonoyan requested that the accompanying officers allow him to briefly visit his mother before continuing to the Assembly. The officers who were escorting Tonoyan contacted Sergey Atomyan to seek permission. The head of the penitentiary service allowed Tonoyan to go home and visit his mother on the condition that no one know about it.

However, eventually, the information reached the Prime Minister due to the efforts of the Ministry and the head of the National Assembly's Defense Committee, Andranik Kocharyan, and Nikol Pashinyan ordered the dismissal of Atomyan, a former member of his faction, in anger.

The newspaper notes that they attempted to verify this information with Sergey Atomyan, who responded: "The information is false. No one has approached me with such a question. If they do and anything is out of legal bounds, no action can be taken in any direction with whom it is connected."

For more details, see today’s issue of the newspaper.