On January 11, the European Court of Human Rights will announce another verdict against the Republic of Armenia.

The applicant is Alexander Arzumanyan, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Armenia to the Kingdom of Denmark, who filed a lawsuit before his appointment .He was appointed Ambassador to Armenia in 2017.

Alexander Arzumanyan, former Minister of Foreign Affairs and leader of the Civil Disobedience Movement, appealed to the fact that he had been detained for alleged “money laundering.”

Alexander Arzumanyan was arrested in May 2007 and detained on suspicion of legalization of illegal income.

The courts ordered his detention on the grounds of the gravity of the offence and the risk of his absconding, obstructing justice or reoffending.

They then repeatedly extended his detention on similar grounds, despite Mr Arzumanyan’s objections, until his release in September on an undertaking not to leave his residence.

Relying on Article 5 § 3 (right to liberty and security / entitlement to trial within a reasonable time or to release pending trial), Mr Arzumanyan complains that the domestic courts failed to sufficiently justify his detention.

It should be reminded that in 2007 the National Security Service of Armenia stated that “Vahan Shirkhanyan and Alexander Arzumanyan were in Moscow and ,coming to an agreemet with Levon Markos, the citizen of Russia, who was wanted for financial fraud since 2005, transfered a suspicious amount of money to Armenia.”

Alexander Arzumanyan does not accept the accusation.