Decision on Karapetyan immunity delayed

PanARMENIAN.Net - The discussion on lifting the parliamentary immunity of Narek Karapetyan, a deputy from the Strong Armenia party, has been postponed and will resume at 1:00 p.m. on July 22.

The deliberations, which began on the evening of July 21, did not conclude, and the adoption of a decision was deferred.

Speaking to reporters, lawyer Aram Vardevanyan said the process had reached the stage where the Central Election Commission (CEC) was expected to hold separate consultations before deciding whether to grant consent for criminal prosecution, Panorama.am reported.

“The motion effectively concerns the allegations attributed to our colleague Alik Aleksanyan. The case file included perhaps one or one and a half volumes of materials, some of which were unreadable, while others had no connection to reality,” Vardevanyan said.

Earlier, Vardevanyan had stated that Armenia’s Central Election Commission was not authorized to consider the issue of stripping Strong Armenia party member Narek Karapetyan of parliamentary immunity.

The CEC chair had previously stated that the Prosecutor’s Office had again applied to the commission seeking consent to initiate criminal proceedings against Narek Karapetyan, this time citing the relevant Constitutional Court ruling. According to the chair, until the protocol confirming the elected deputies and the composition of parliament had been finalized, the commission had no legal basis to consider the matter.

According to the chair, from July 21 until 10:00 a.m. on August 2, the individuals listed in the protocol are considered elected, but have not yet assumed their parliamentary mandates. During that period, decisions on granting consent for criminal prosecution fall within the CEC’s jurisdiction. It was not disclosed in connection with which criminal case the Prosecutor’s Office applied to the CEC, as that information was classified as part of the secrecy of the pre-trial investigation.