Thursday,
Key Witness In Ex-Police Chief’s Death Probe Leaves Armenia
• Ruzanna Stepanian
Armenia -- National police chief Hayk Harutiunian at an official ceremony in
Yerevan, April 16, 2003.
The key witness in an ongoing investigation into the recent mysterious death of
a former chief of the Armenian police has left the country, law-enforcement
authorities said on Thursday.
General Hayk Harutiunian, who headed the national police service from
1999-2008, was found shot to death in his country house on September 24. After
questioning an unnamed person who “was with him at the scene of the incident”
Armenia’s Investigative Committee suggested that Harutiunian most probably
committed suicide.
A spokeswoman for the committee told RFE/RL’s Armenian service that the
“eyewitness” assured investigators that they “will return to the country in
just a few days’ time.” She insisted that the witness’s absence from the
country will not have a negative impact on the investigation.
“All investigative actions requiring the presence of the witness have been
taken and the investigating body has acquired all the evidence relevant to the
criminal case,” said the official. Investigators are now awaiting final results
of forensic tests conducted as part of the probe, she added.
Two Armenian news websites claimed late last month that moments before his
death Harutiunian complained to another person that he is being pressured by
the authorities to give false incriminating testimony against former President
Robert Kocharian and a retired senior police officer indicted in connection
with the 2008 post-election violence in Yerevan. The Investigative Committee
was quick to dismiss those reports.
Two days after Harutiunian’s death, another law-enforcement body, the Special
Investigative Service, charged Alik Sargsian, the man who succeeded Harutiunian
as police chief in April 2008, with covering up what the SIS now describes as
security forces’ illegal crackdown on opposition protesters in February-March
2008. Sargsian flatly denied the accusations.
The SIS had repeatedly interrogated Harutiunian as a witness in the case. It
claimed on September 26 that he too had signed “official documents containing
false information and records” about the 2008 crackdown.
Former President Kocharian is currently under arrest, standing trial, along
with three other former officials, on coup charges. He rejects them as
politically motivated.
Authorities Deal With Toxic Leak From Armenian Copper Mine
• Susan Badalian
Armenia -- The polluted Voghji river in Syunik province is seen after a mining
accident , .
A senior government official accused Armenia’s largest mining company on
Thursday of trying to hush up a toxic waste spill that contaminated a river
flowing through the southeastern town of Kapan.
The accident was reported near a “tailings” dump of the Zangezur
Copper-Molybdenum Combine (ZCMC) early in the morning. Officials said that a
leaky pipe connecting the dump with ZCMC’s ore-processing facilities sent a
stream of industrial waste flowing into the already polluted Voghji river.
According to Levon Petrosian, the head of the regional branch of the state
Inspectorate Body on Environment Protection and Natural Resources, the pipe was
swiftly replaced by ZCMC workers sent to the site. “The river is still brown,”
Petrosian told RFE/RL’s Armenian service in the afternoon.
He said his agency took water and soil samples from the contaminated area and
sent them to Yerevan for detailed examination.
ZCMC said that the leak lasted for up to 40 minutes. Minister for Emergency
Situations Felix Tsolakian blasted the company during a cabinet meeting in
Yerevan which discussed the accident.
“They kept things secret and didn’t [immediately] say that such an accident
happened,” claimed Tsolakian. “The [ZCMC] bosses didn’t say that and carried
out quick repairs.”
“I don’t know what he meant by ‘kept secret,’” Petrosian said when asked to
comment on Tsolakian’s claims. “All I can say is that when our inspectors heard
the alert and went there the pipe was already replaced.”
Environment Protection Minister Erik Grigorian told reporters that authorities
are now ascertaining the damage inflicted on the environment. He complained
that Armenian environmental legislation sets “ridiculously” small fines for
mining firms violating it and must be toughened significantly.
Faulty and old tailings dumps are thought to be a key source of environmental
damage caused by the Armenian mining industry which generates more than 40
percent of the country’s exports.
ZCMC, which is nominally controlled by the German metals group Cronimet, is the
sector’s largest enterprise employing more than 4,000 people. It is also
Armenia’s number one corporate taxpayer.
Armenian Constitutional Court Chief Under Investigation
• Astghik Bedevian
Armenia -- Constitutional Court Chairman Hrayr Tovmasian reads out a court
verdict on an appeal filed by former President Robert Kocharian, September 4,
2019.
Law-enforcement officials raided the offices of Armenia’s Constitutional Court
and former ruling Republican Party (HHK) on Thursday after launching criminal
proceedings against the court’s embattled chairman, Hrayr Tovmasian.
Other investigators visited and questioned his elderly father.
The developments came two days after most members of the Constitutional Court
refused to oust Tovmasian. The Armenian parliament called for his dismissal in
an October 4 appeal drafted by its majority loyal to Prime Minister Nikol
Pashinian.
A non-partisan member of the parliament, Arman Babajanian, went further,
demanding that law-enforcement authorities prosecute Tovmasian. Babajanian
charged that the latter colluded with other key members of Armenia’s former
HHK-dominated leadership to illegally become head of the Constitutional Court
in March 2018.
The Special Investigative Service (SIS) announced on Thursday morning that it
has decided to open a criminal case in connection with Babajanian’s written
demand. It said it has launched an investigation into a possible “usurpation of
state authority by a group of individuals.”
An SIS official visited the HHK headquarters in Yerevan in the following hours.
According to the party’s deputy chairman, Armen Ashotian, he confiscated
documents relating to the termination of Tovmasian’s membership in the HHK in
early 2018.
The SIS also carried out what it called “investigative actions” inside the
Constitutional Court building in the Armenian capital. The court secretariat
refused to comment on the probe, saying that Tovmasian is on vacation at the
moment.
Under Armenian law, Tovmasian cannot be prosecuted without the consent of at
least five of the nine members of the country’s highest court. Two of those
judges, Alvina Gyulumian and Arevik Petrosian, declined to comment on the
unprecedented proceedings when contacted by RFE/RL’s Armenians service.
Armenia -- Riot police separate rival protesters outside the Constitutional
Court building in Yerevan, September 3, 2019.
HHK representatives denounced the case as politically motivated. “Pashinian’s
regime is looking for internal enemies in the country,” said the former ruling
party’s spokesman, Eduard Sharmazanov.
Ruben Melikian, Nagorno-Karabakh’s former human rights ombudsman highly
critical of Pashinian’s government, likewise described Tovmasian as a victim of
political persecution.
Melikian also claimed that another law-enforcement agency, the National
Security Service (NSS), has summoned Tovmasian’s father Vartan and two
daughters for questioning. “Guys, do you realize what red line you are
erasing?” he wrote on Facebook, referring to the authorities.
Later in the day NSS officers questioned Vartan Tovmasian in his home in a
village south of Yerevan. Tovmasian Sr. told reporters afterwards that they
only asked him questions about the roof of his state-owned one-story house.
“They wondered when we built the roof, how much we spent on it, where we got
the money from and so on,” he said. “They did not ask other questions or search
the house. They just said they want to check the roof.”
The 75-year-old added that he is ready to visit the NSS headquarters and answer
more questions there on Friday. He did not confirm that the powerful security
service also wants to interrogate Hrayr Tovmasian’s daughters.
The NSS said that it will comment on the matter later on. It did not issue any
statements as of Thursday evening.
Tovmasian claimed on October 2 that the authorities are seeking to force him
out in order to gain control over the Constitutional Court and be able to make
unconstitutional decisions. He said he will not bow to the pressure despite
recent arrests of two individuals linked to him.
In a September 4 ruling read out by Tovmasian, the Constitutional Court
declared unconstitutional a legal provision used by SIS investigators against
Armenia’s jailed former President Robert Kocharian. Pashinian called the ruling
“illegal.” The prime minister charged earlier Tovmasian had cut political deals
with HHK leader and former President Serzh Sarkisian to “privatize” the court.
Meanwhile, Vahe Grigorian, the court’s newest member installed by the current
parliament in June, insisted that he sees no political motives behind the
law-enforcement authorities’ latest moves against Tovmasian.
Grigorian also continued to challenge the legitimacy of Tovmasian and six other
court justices appointed before the “Velvet Revolution” of April-May 2018.
“This crisis in the Constitutional Court is much deeper than Hrayr Tovmasian
and his past activities or current behavior,” he said.
Press Review
“Haykakan Zhamanak” says that Armenia’s former rulers are very worried about
the current authorities’ plans to enact a law allowing them to confiscate
“illegally acquired assets.” The law would primarily and retroactively apply to
practices of the past decade. “This is apparently the reason why critics regard
the law as an additional weapon in the authorities’ hands for unleashing
repressions against ‘undesirable’ individuals,” writes the pro-government
paper. “The law could indeed prove controversial. But one must acknowledge that
not having such a law, allowing a few dozen families to enjoy billions [of
dollars] from the state and the people would have much more severe consequences
for Armenia.”
“Zhamanak” says that the latest visit to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone by
the U.S., Russian and French co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group began right
after a summit of Turkic states held in Baku. The paper says that Presidents
Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan and Recep Tayyip Erdogan used the summit to
reiterate their “aggressive and bellicose” statements on Karabakh. It says
Aliyev also effectively laid claim to Armenia’s Syunik province, potentially
setting the stage for a “regional war.” The likelihood of such a war depends on
how the United States, Russia and France will respond to Aliyev’s statement, it
says.
“Zhoghovurd” notes that Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian met with Karabakh
President Bako Sahakian just before receiving the Minsk Group co-chairs in
Yerevan this week. An official press release on the meeting said Pashinian and
Sahakian discussed ways of further strengthening links between Armenia and
Karabakh. The paper notes that in the meantime Aliyev and Erdogan discussed
Azerbaijani-Turkish military cooperation at a meeting in Baku.
(Lilit Harutiunian)
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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