Hrayr Tovmasyan

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Armenia

New judges for Armenia’s top court, opposition boycotts the vote

by OC Media

•2 min read

Months after removing three of Armenia’s top judges the country’s parliament has voted in their replacements. Opposition parties boycotted the vote. Armenia’s parliament voted in Yervand Khundkaryan, Edgar Shatiryan and Artur Vagharshyan as new judges to the Constitutional Court on Tuesday. Nominees for the position require a supermajority of 3/5ths of parliament to be approved. As the ruling My Step faction controls a majority of seats in parliament, it was able to pass the motion successf

Armenia

Armenian parliament votes to remove three judges from Constitutional Court

by OC Media

•3 min read

Armenia’s parliament has passed a bill that will remove three judges from the Constitutional Court. The amendments will also remove Hrayr Tovmasyan, widely regarded as being close to the previous government, from his position as Chair. The bill, co-authored by several MPs from the ruling My Step faction, was put on the floor of the parliament in an extraordinary session on 22 June and was passed after two hearings. According to the bill, Hrayr Tovmasyan will be removed as Chair of the Consti

Armenia

Former Armenian Security Service head found dead in apparent suicide

by OC Media

•4 min read

The former head of Armenia’s National Security Service (NSS), Georgi Kutoyan, 38, has been found dead in his flat in Yerevan in an apparent suicide. Naira Harutyunyan, spokesperson for the Investigative Committee of Armenia, announced the news on Friday in a post on Facebook. Later that evening, Artur Melikyan, the head of the Committee’s Department of Particularly Important Cases, told reporters near Kutoyan’s flat that a criminal investigation had been launched into the possibility tha

Arman Babajanyan

Former Deputy Chief of Staff of Armenia’s Parliament released from detention

by OC Media

•4 min read

On 12 November, the Prosecutor General’s Office of Armenia announced that Arsen Babayan, former Deputy Chief of Staff of Armenia’s National Assembly who had been under arrest since 21 October for fraud and ‘colluding to usurp power’ has been released. Babayan’s indictment stems from a lawsuit brought by independent MP Arman Babajanyan to the General Prosecutor’s Office on 4 October. In the lawsuit, still ongoing, Babajanyan claims that embattled constitutional court chair Hrayr Tovmasya

Armenia

Armenian security service questions family of constitutional court chair

by OC Media

•5 min read

The father and two daughters of embattled constitutional court chair Hrayr Tovmasyan, who was recently accused of ‘seizing state power’, have been questioned by Armenia’s National Security Service (NSS). The NSS called the three in for questioning on 18 October, according to them to answer questions that emerged from a preliminary investigation into Tovmasyan. The family’s lawyers were not fully informed about the reason for the questions or what kind of case the NSS had launched prior

Anzhela Tovmasyan

Armenian news outlet egged for being ‘anti-Armenian’

by OC Media

•4 min read

The entrance to Armenian media outlet the Hayeli Press Club was defaced by a group of young men on 5 October for being ‘anti-Armenian’. The incident has been widely condemned and an investigation opened for disrupting a journalists’ work. Hayeli is run by the sister of Hrayr Tovmasyan, the head of the constitutional court and a prominent critic of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. Tovmasyan was appointed by the formerly ruling Republican Party of Armenia. In a video recorded and uploaded to

Armenia

Armenian Parliament votes to strip powers from head of constitutional court

by OC Media

•3 min read

Armenia’s parliament, the National Assembly, has voted to revoke the powers of the President of the Constitutional Court, Hrayr Tovmasyan, on 4 October. Supporters of the vote claim that Tovmasyan is compromised due to his connections with Armenia’s pre-revolutionary government, while critics say that the government is meddling with the independence of the judiciary. Tovmasyan, who has been in the position since February 2018, has been accused by members of the ruling My Step faction of ha