Listening Devices Targeted Kristine Grigoryan During Ombudsman Tenure, Reports Hayrenik

The Republic of Armenia's security services reportedly listened in on Kristine Grigoryan, the head of the Armenian Foreign Intelligence Service, during her time as the Human Rights Defender. This was reported by the Hayrenik newspaper.

Grigoryan has been in the position of head of the Foreign Intelligence Service for over a year now.

According to well-informed sources, while still serving as Ombudsman, Grigoryan discovered that attempts were being made to install listening programs on her phone. After receiving a notification from relevant agencies indicating that there was foreign interference with her phone, she immediately reached out to security services to verify whether they were behind it. After receiving a denial from the National Security Service, she stated her intention to raise the issue publicly and inform international organizations that the Ombudsman of Armenia was being targeted for surveillance.

According to sources from the publication, following this 'threat', the security services changed their position, informing the Human Rights Defender that they had no intention of surveilling her and that the program had been mistakenly installed on her phone.

The newspaper further reports that during this time, the security services had managed to extract a significant amount of material from her phone, which is being kept as compromise material, referred to as 'intimate in nature'.