New charges brought against former high-ranking officials of Armenia

On Thursday, the Prosecutor General’s Office filed new charges of abusing official authority that negligently caused grave consequences against Seyran Ohanyan, relating to his tenure as the Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Armenia in 2008.

If found guilty, Ohanyan could face up to eight years imprisonment.

The case against Ohanyan and former high-ranking officials was opened shortly after Nikol Pashinyan came to power in 2018 after the Velvet Revolution.

The charges were brought in July 2018 against four former officials — ex-President Robert Kocharyan, Deputy Minister of Defense Yuri Khachaturov, Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces Seyran Ohanyan, and Armen Gevorgyan, Chief of the President’s Staff.

The charges were related to a deadly crackdown on anti-government protests against widely reported fraud in the 2008 presidential elections which left 10 people dead.

One of the leaders of the protests was Pashinyan, who had been sentenced to seven years in prison.

They were acquitted of charges in March 2021 after Armenia’s Constitutional court declared that it was unconstitutional to charge the former officials with  ‘overthrowing the constitutional order’  as a result, his case will be closed and his trial cancelled.

However, the court’s decision was overturned in September 2024 and sent to the Anti-Corruption Court for a new examination.

In November 2024 the prosecutors proposed to charge Kocharyan and others for exceeding official authority and abusing influence.

Previously, the prosecutors only presented the charges against Kocharyan and Khachaturov, while on Thursday, they presented the charges against Ohanyan. The charges against Armen Gevorgyan still need to be presented.

Previously, Anti-Corruption Court Judge Sargis Petrosyan rejected a motion in 2024 to exclude himself from the case, considering that in the 2018 Parliamentary elections, he was a candidate from the Pashinyan-led My Step faction, which raised doubts about his impartiality.

Armenia’s top court dismisses Kocharyan case as ‘unconstitutional’

Armenia’s Constitutional court declared that it was unconstitutional to charge Robert Kocharyan, Armenia’s second president, with Article 300.1 of the Criminal Code. As a result, his case will be closed and his trial cancelled. Chair of the Constitutional Court Armen Dilanyan announced the court’…

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