Former President of the Constitutional Court denounces “political persecution”

Tovmasian and most of the court’s other judges came under strong pressure from the government in 2019 and were forced to resign. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan accused them of maintaining close ties with the former Armenian government and of hindering his “judicial reforms.” They did not bow to the pressure.

Tovmasian refused to give up his post even after he was indicted in December 2019. Prosecutors said that during his tenure as justice minister from 2010 to 2014, he illegally privatized an office in Yerevan and forced state notaries to rent other premises that he “de facto” owned.

Pashinyan and his political team eventually succeeded in significantly changing the composition of the Constitutional Court through constitutional amendments passed by the Armenian parliament under controversial circumstances in 2020.

The amendments called for the gradual resignation of seven of the court’s nine judges who disagreed with Pashinyan’s government. They also forced Tovmasyan to resign as the court’s chairman but remain a judge. Tovmasyan, the dismissed judges, and the Armenian opposition insisted that the constitutional amendment violated existing legal procedures.

Tovmasian spent more than five hours delivering his closing argument in the trial that began four and a half years ago, suggesting he was charged for failing to follow Pashinian’s orders.

“I insist that the prosecution against me was carried out in violation of the law,” he told a court in Yerevan. “In particular, the prosecution against me was basically carried out by the investigators long before I was formally charged.”

Prosecutors last month asked for a seven-year prison sentence for Tovmasian, claiming he was trying to drag out the case until the statute of limitations on his alleged crimes expires in December. The presiding judge has since tried to speed up and end the trial.

One of the prosecutors has stated that even if Tovmasian is convicted by the court but avoids a prison sentence, he will have to leave the Constitutional Court. The former Supreme Court Justice has not commented on this possibility.