Criminal prosecution was initiated against Gorik Hakobyan and 4 other former NSS officials in the “March 1” case.

In particular, according to the Prosecutor’s Office’s report, data were obtained through the criminal proceedings that Gorik Hakobyan, who held the position of National Security Service Director on March 1, 2008, “in order to justify the violence of police officers in Freedom Square, (…) in the absence of grounds for using physical force and special measures provided for by law, in order to create false grounds, dated February 28, 2008, with the help of his subordinates and the assistance of the RA Police H.H. (Hayk Harutyunyan. – ed.) who held the position of the head, sent a letter with the contents of a fake, official document via secret mail, stating that “According to the operational data received by the National Security Service, after the RA presidential elections, from February 20, the unauthorized rallies and marches carried out by Levon Ter-Petrosyan and his teammates in Yerevan’s Freedom Square aim to destabilize the situation in Yerevan. Provocative statements and appeals are regularly made during rallies. It has also been reported that firearms, explosives, metal rods and batons will be distributed to the protesters, which can be used during possible provocative and illegal actions they may incite.”

Then, according to the report, Gorik Hakobyan, in order to cover up the fact that the above-mentioned document was false, “incited T.B., who held the position of deputy head of the National Security Service’s Constitutional Order Protection and Anti-Terrorism Department as of March 2008, to “organize and manage the process of preparing and handing over false information of an operational nature.” On the previous dates, February 23, February 24, and February 28, 2008, false reports of an operational nature were drawn up and put into official document circulation, the contents of which allegedly served as the basis for Gorik Hakobyan’s false note of February 28, the Prosecutor’s Office claims.

The prosecutor also initiated a public criminal prosecution against T.B., under the features of Article 38-314, part 1 of the Criminal Code adopted on April 18, 2003, “organizing the insertion of obviously false information or notes in official documents by an official for profit or other personal motivations or group interests”, who held the position of the secretary of the 4th department of the department headed by him. In relation to N.M., A.G., who holds the position of the head of the constitutional order preservation department, and A.B., who holds the position of the deputy head of the department, according to the characteristics of part 1 of Article 314, the message says.

Gorik Hakobyan died in 2017, Hayk Harutyunyan in 2019.

On June 1, the Public Prosecutor’s Office announced that it had initiated a new criminal case against the former commanders of 4 army corps in the “March 1” case.

During the campaign in mid-May, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced that “March 1″ is 100% revealed with all details, and Robert Kocharyan should sit down.”

The second president, Robert Kocharian, and his former subordinates were acquitted in 2021, based on the decision of the Constitutional Court, by which the High Court declared unconstitutional the charge of subverting the constitutional order brought against Kocharian.

The verdict canceled this decision sent the case to a new investigation, by which Kocharyan and his former subordinates have already been charged with the article of trespassing official powers. This article has expired. Recently, however, the Prosecutor General stated in the National Assembly that the facts “provide a basis for expressing an opinion” that in this case “we are dealing with the transfer of governmental powers combined with violence, which is a crime without a time limit.”