Arrest as a preventive measure cannot be applied at all to the Armenian parliament former deputy chief of staff Arsen Babayan, Babayan’s lawyer Lusine Sahakyan told reporters on Thursday.

According to her, the court should have stated the absence of reasonable doubts. 

“I don’t want to talk about the reasons, because we understand that this is a political process,” she said.

Lusine Sahakyan noted that the court decision will be appealed, up to the ECHR. The lawyer stated that the citizen’s rights had been violated and he could seek damages, but this does not change anything, since the person is already illegally deprived of his liberty.

Arsen Babayan was arrested Monday on suspicion of committing a crime under Article 314 (1) of the Criminal Code (committing official fraud). The next day, the Special Investigation Service (SIS) charged Babayan with Article 38-300 (aiding the usurpation of power) and Article 314 (1) (committing official fraud) of the Criminal Code, pursuant to which, in 2018, as Acting Deputy Chief of Staff of the NA, he had assisted in assuming the powers of the Constitutional Court by a group of officials, as well as had committed official fraud.

According to the indictment, Arsen Babayan distorted Constitutional Court then president Gagik Harutyunyan's petition for resignation to actually entering the NA on March 5, 2018, marking the date of entry as March 2, 2018. In this way, Babayan had created false grounds for publication of the statement—signed on March 2, 2018—of the then NA President Ara Babloyan on the resignation of the then Constitutional Court president Gagik Harutyunyan, and which in turn served as the basis for Harutyunyan’s termination of office, and later for the process of nominating and appointing Hrayr Tovmasyan to that vacant post.