YEREVAN. – Armen Charchyan does not accept the charge in full. Erik Aleksanyan, an attorney of Doctor Charchyan—who is director of Izmirlian Medical Center and is on the "Armenia" bloc’s electoral list in Sunday’s snap parliamentary elections—, told this during a press conference Sunday.

"As for the recording, I want to say that this very recording was the basis for the SIS [(Special Investigation Service)] for that. But you have to understand how that recording came about. The recording published by the Telegram channel of Baghramyan 26 [i.e., the address of the presidential office] is put in the charge. We are dealing here with a recording published by an unpublished source. In criminal proceedings theory, any argument or fact published by an unknown source is equivalent to an anonymous report; and an anonymous report is not a legal reason to initiate a criminal case.

Usually, in the case of such reports, they are not ignored, they carry out inspection actions, and only after that, if the features of a crime are confirmed, the result of the inspection actions—but not an anonymous report—becomes a reason for initiating a criminal case.

Therefore, not only could Armen Charchyan not be prosecuted, but, also, we cannot talk about initiating a legal criminal case," the lawyer explained.

He noted that the court based its decision to release Armen Charchyan on the fact that there was no reasonable suspicion of his arrest. "The court also considered that it was equivalent to an anonymous report, and therefore a person's freedom could not be restricted on that basis.

This is an obvious political persecution, very soon Mr. Charchyan will gain the status of ‘acquitted,’ and this disgraceful persecution will end. "

Also, Erik Aleksanyan noted that the investigative body had sent this recording for expertise to make sure that Armen Charchyan was actually speaking in it; that is, they also had doubts.

Armenian News-NEWS.am reported earlier that a recording was spread in the press alleging Armen Charchyan putting pressure on his subordinates at Izmirlian Medical Center, and a criminal case was initiated at the Special Investigation Service (SIS) in that regard.

According to the respective SIS statement, Charchyan had forced the employees of this hospital to vote in Sunday’s snap parliamentary elections. In particular, he urged them to vote against the current authorities, at the same time threatening that if his request is not met, they will receive "much harsher treatment" and "severely inadequate response," and that they will "check" who among them voted in the elections, insinuating that he decides the "fate” of their “generations."

Armen Charchyan on Saturday was remanded in custody on suspicion of committing a serious respective crime under the Criminal Code.