YEREVAN. – The government has not set a goal for itself to get rid of Hrayr Tovmasyan. Deputy Prime Minister of Armenia Tigran Avinyan told this to Armenian News-NEWS.am, referring to the Special Investigation Service (SIS) launching a criminal case against president Hrayr Tovmasyan of the Constitutional Court (CC) and several others on charges of usurpation of power.

“I can only state that a criminal case has been instituted at the Special Investigation Service over the issues pointed by the MP,” he said. “I believe the investigation will show the course.”

Asked whether this is another attempt at putting pressure on the high court, the government official responded as follows: “They should have thought before in connection with being a high court, shown appropriate treatment and respect toward that court so that today we wouldn’t have had such matters at all on our agenda. Issues need to be properly discussed, and I believe that the investigation will give the answers to those questions.”

And asked whether the current crisis over the CC is due to Tovmasyan, and if he resigns, whether these processes will be terminated, Avinyan responded: “I don’t think that the work of the institution is conditioned solely on the person.”

As reported earlier, on the basis of a report which independent MP Arman Babajanyan had submitted to the Prosecutor General, the SIS has launched a criminal case against Hrayr Tovmasyan and some other officials, and pursuant to Section 1 of Article 300 of the Criminal Code (usurpation of official power).

Within the scope of this criminal case, SIS investigators on Thursday conducted investigations at the CC and the headquarters of the former ruling Republican Party of Armenia.

Babajanyan claims Tovmasyan has usurped the office of Constitutional Court President by using criminal schemes.