The court released former member of parliament Manvel Grigoryan on a 25 million AMD bail. Acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, in connection to Manvel Grigoryan’s release, said that he would be happy if it becomes clear that the decision was made based off of the court’s fair decision. “If it becomes clear that this was the result of some illegal pressure, I will obviously be very upset. If it becomes clear that this is a reflection of the court’s freedom, then I will be happy,” Nikol Pashinyan said, and continued. “There is no pressure from us- the state and the government- on the court system, but I am not convinced that old mechanisms and old ties are not working, Because we know how the old court system was put into place. But I also don’t want to violate any judge’s presumption of innocence. Because, if we want for the judicial system to be free, we also need to accept that the opinions of the investigative body, the plaintiff, and the court need to coincide.”
The Acting Prime Minister also said that Armenian citizens need to believe that the Armenian government is not getting involved in the works of the court authorities. According to him, the secretly recorded phone conversations are proof of this. “What was said during these last secret recordings? The head of the National Security Service called me and said that the judge is scared. How can that be? Whom is he afraid of? If we’re not the ones to have made him afraid, it means that there’s someone else who’s scaring him.”
Tatevik Ghazaryan
