The Human Rights Defender is independent and performs his activities exclusively on the basis of the Constitution and laws, that is, by the supremacy of law. This is what Human Rights Defender of Armenia Arman Tatoyan wrote on his Facebook page, touching upon his comment on the competence to institute a criminal case.

“Today at the National Assembly, I answered journalists’ questions, and one of them was related to the competence to instruct to institute a criminal case.

I emphasize once again that the Human Rights Defender is independent and performs his activities exclusively on the basis of the Constitution and laws, that is, by the supremacy of law.

The words of the Human Rights Defender can’t have any political slant or subtext, and my answer to the question was exclusively of a legal nature and arose from the law.

I consider giving a political context, presenting the issue out of context or speculating it as inadmissible.

P.S. A while ago, I noticed the Prime Minister’s second Facebook post which, I believe, makes the issue clear. I hope everything became clear for journalists as well,” the Human Rights Defender’s post reads.

Earlier, NEWS.am had reported that Human Rights Defender Arman Tatoyan, commenting on Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s statement on instructing to institute a criminal case against his close relative, had stated that the power to instruct to institute criminal cases is reserved to a prosecutor, but not the Prime Minister, or, in some cases — to the head of the investigation division.