Why Rauben Vardazaryan's House Was Raided: Details from "Hraparak"

According to "Hraparak" newspaper, the Anti-Corruption Committee conducted a raid yesterday at the house of Ruben Vardazaryan, the former President of the Supreme Judicial Council, in search of specific materials. Specifically, sources indicate that law enforcement searched for the complete recording of the controversial conversation between Ruben Vardazaryan and former Supreme Judicial Council President Gagik Jhangiryan published two years ago, which contains noteworthy sections but has not been revealed to this day.

"Why have law enforcement remembered the complete version of the recording now, especially when the case was previously closed through the light hand of the Anti-Corruption Committee, and only due to Vardazaryan's persistence has the case been reopened? Previously, the practically ineffective Anti-Corruption Committee was searching for new targets," the article notes.

It is worth recalling that on June 20, 2022, Ruben Vardazaryan published a controversial recording during a press conference, claiming that Gagik Jhangiryan, the acting president of the Supreme Judicial Council, had attempted to coerce him into resigning from his position. The contentious demand was made at a dinner attended by not only Vardazaryan and Jhangiryan but also Supreme Judicial Council member Stepan Mikayelyan. On the same day, Jhangiryan personally admitted on Public TV that he had indeed conducted negotiations with Vardazaryan to persuade him to resign.

Moreover, he stated that forcing the President of the Supreme Judicial Council to resign is not an easy task, and he had employed psychological techniques, claiming to have "pressed" him. Days after the explosive recording and an even more perplexing interview, it was announced that Gagik Jhangiryan had health issues and underwent surgery. Subsequently, on July 1, Jhangiryan's resignation was officially confirmed.

The Investigative Committee of Armenia initiated a criminal proceeding based on the mentioned recording, which was closed in December due to lack of evidence of a crime. Within the framework of the proceeding, former members of the Supreme Judicial Council, including Stepan Mikayelyan, Sergey Chichoyan, and Viguen Kocharian, were interrogated as witnesses. Notably, no criminal prosecution was initiated against the latter two.

Vardazaryan filed a complaint against the aforementioned decision, but before the complaint could be addressed, Deputy Attorney General Arthur Poghosyan unilaterally revoked the investigator’s decision, deciding to transfer the case to the Anti-Corruption Committee according to investigative jurisdiction. At the same time, the prosecutor noted that after notifying the end of the preliminary investigation, deadlines were not adhered to, as the investigator did not provide time for the complaint.

After the case was transferred to the Anti-Corruption Committee, it remained in a de facto frozen state for three months and was then closed due to lack of evidence of a crime. The decision to close the case has been challenged in court. As a result, the Anti-Corruption Court, presided over by Judge Meri Mosinyan, accepted Vardazaryan's representatives' complaint and revoked the closure of the case. The judicial act has not been contested by either the prosecutor's office or the investigator, therefore, the judicial act has entered into force. The proceedings have now been resumed, and, in effect, the first task is searching for the complete version of the recording, while the unacceptable coercion against the public official Vardazaryan has not been addressed or investigated to this day,” the newspaper writes.