The Facebook post of Garnik Danielyan, deputy of the "Hayastan" faction. Today, I visited Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan and Archbishop Mikael Adjapahyan in the isolation cell of the National Security Service, together with my colleague, deputy of the Armenia faction, Argishti Gevorgyan. Unfortunately, meetings are closed with Arshak Archbishop Khachatryan, who is in the same cell. Following the recent events, the Holy Fathers remain confident that the war declared against our identity, including the Armenian Apostolic Church, is doomed to failure. The leader of the administration, crossing all borders and exceeding his powers, is now trying to force the clergy to discount the name of His Holiness during the Liturgy through the National Security Service. Such clumsy and illegal steps are characteristic of regimes that have lost legitimacy and public trust and rely only on power structures. Bagrat Srbazan expressed his gratitude to all the participants of the presentation of the book "Winning Ourselves". In his authored book, Srbazan points out our problems and the keys to their solution. I should also mention that on the eve of the Episcopal meeting, on December 9, the court will examine the question of the participation of Bishop Bagrat and the change of the restraining order. Freedom to our spiritual fathers, freedom to political prisoners.

The preliminary investigation of the criminal proceedings initiated in connection with the incident of trafficking a helpless person by a person in the Lori Marz Investigation Department of the RA Investigative Committee has been completed. During the preliminary investigation, it was found that GH, being aware of L.Sh's helpless state, that is, having problems related to mental health, continuously exploited him for a long time, during the last 10 years. In particular, GH took L.S. out of the latter's apartment and placed him in an adjoining building with worse living conditions, providing minimal living conditions, and converted and used the same apartment as a home and a storage room for his personal belongings, putting a separate lock on the entrance and keeping the key with him. In addition, GH made L.Sh work for free in cultivating the land and garden near his house, taking care of the chickens kept in the victim's apartment, took from him the pension and disability allowance provided by the relevant state support programs, and the victim had to engage in begging and collect garbage in order to heat the residence in order to secure his livelihood. A public criminal prosecution was initiated against G.H. under Article 189, Part 1 of the Criminal Code (trafficking or exploitation of a child or a helpless person). The criminal proceedings were sent with the indictment to the supervising prosecutor, with a request to confirm it and send it to the court for examination on the merits.

An interstate search was announced for Major General Grigori Khachaturov. This was reported by the General Prosecutor's Office. On November 25, 2025, a public prosecution was initiated against Grigori Khachaturov under Article 436, Part 1 and Article 549, Part 3 of the Criminal Code. An interstate search was announced for Khachaturov. The court rejected the petition of the investigator regarding arrest as a preventive measure, against which the prosecutor's office will file an appeal.

584 individuals who committed serious and particularly serious crimes have been released from criminal liability on the basis of active repentance.

It should be reminded that the institution of release from criminal liability on the basis of active repentance had for years applied only to minor and medium-gravity crimes. However, on July 12, 2023, amendments were made to Article 81 of the Criminal Code, after which individuals accused of committing serious and particularly serious crimes may also be released from criminal liability on the basis of active repentance, provided there are “exceptional factors.”

The law also introduced restrictions on the application of this institution to certain types of crimes, such as genocide, trafficking, espionage, etc. The problematic issue, however, is that the list does not include murder, crimes against sexual inviolability, high treason, as well as the article on child trafficking—which is even more serious than trafficking. From the outset, these legislative changes were not unequivocally accepted. Professionals argued that applying this mechanism to serious and particularly serious crimes is not justified as a means of reducing the workload of investigative bodies and courts. There were also concerns about potential contradictions with Armenia’s international obligations, dual approaches, high corruption risks, violations of victims’ rights, the possible rise of impunity, crime rates, and even incidents of vigilantism. It is worth recalling PACE Resolution 1675 (2009), “The Necessity to Eradicate Impunity,” which states that all individuals responsible for serious human rights violations must be held accountable. The Council of Europe notes that combating impunity for serious human rights violations is a priority both for the CoE and all national and international law-enforcement bodies. Impunity must be eliminated both as an issue of individual justice and as a mechanism for preventing future violations.

Nevertheless, statistical data show that the active repentance mechanism has been applied mostly to serious and particularly serious crimes. It remains unclear what “exceptional factors” applied in 584 cases over 2.5 years. According to information provided by the RA Prosecutor General’s Office in response to written questions from “Pastinfo,” in the second half of 2022, 30 people were released from criminal liability under Article 197 of the Criminal Procedure Code on the basis of active repentance—24 for minor crimes and 6 for medium-gravity crimes. In 2023, 236 people were released—63 for minor, 52 for medium-gravity, 119 for serious, and 2 for particularly serious crimes. In 2024, 779 people were released—120 for minor, 223 for medium-gravity, 431 for serious, and 5 for particularly serious crimes. In the first half of 2025, 106 people were released—26 for minor, 53 for medium-gravity, and 27 for serious crimes.

It remains unclear which sections of the Criminal Code most of the individuals released on the basis of active repentance for serious and particularly serious crimes had been charged under, as the Prosecutor’s Office did not provide these details.

According to publicly available data as of January 2024, the overwhelming majority of such cases concerned crimes against military service order: out of 184 individuals accused of serious and particularly serious crimes who were released on the basis of active repentance, 182 were charged with committing crimes against military service order.

On November 28, at 12:20 p.m., a citizen reported to the Tumanyan Community Police Department that his neighbor, 74-year-old Lyovik Sh., a resident of the Akner district of Alaverdi, had not returned home since the previous day.

That same day, Alaverdi community police officers, in cooperation with officers of the Lori Regional Department of the Criminal Police, determined through operative-search measures that on November 27, at around 18:00, Lyovik Sh. had visited the home of his 75-year-old neighbor. During a domestic dispute, the neighbor struck Lyovik Sh. on the head with a wooden stick, causing his death.

The 75-year-old man confessed to the act, and the wooden stick used as the murder weapon was also found. He was arrested on reasonable suspicion of committing the crime and taken to the Tumanyan Community Police Department. The compiled documents were forwarded to the Tumanyan Investigative Department. A criminal proceeding has been initiated.

RA Minister of Justice Srbuhi Galyan wrote: "Violence is condemnable. Illegal use of personal data is unacceptable. Any publication, including comments, that violate human rights and contain calls for violence is not allowed. Dear citizens, each of these actions is punishable according to RA legislation. Unfortunately, our society is not free from crimes, and that is the reason why today about 2,845 people accused of crimes of the greatest public danger are in penitentiary institutions, and hundreds of people are being held in non-custodial measures. Let's not forget that everyone has rights, including those accused of crimes. Let's be moderate in our expressions and behavior. Violence in any form is condemnable, but I want to talk about the phenomenon we are dealing with today. This video continues to be actively shared on the Internet, targeting all the children who appear in it, both the perpetrator and the child being abused. Their parents are also targeted. Our state is a state of law, so the reaction to all criminal phenomena must be done in a legal way. And the legal way is to discover the case of the crime, identify the persons who committed the crime, punish them and resocialize them. I must mention that this case, which is about two months old, was in the center of attention of state authorities and that is also the reason that the most severe measure of restraint was applied to children, which is detention, the use of which according to our legislation and international standards, is only carried out in very exceptional cases. I should add that there are now other means of deterrence applied to all minors.

According to the preliminary investigation carried out in the criminal proceedings initiated by the RA Anti-Corruption Committee, it was found that the lawyer, a member of the RA Chamber of Advocates, having learned about the unfavorable decision made by the Financial Arbitration Court of the Union of Banks of Armenia in favor of his acquaintance, expressed his willingness to undertake the representation of his interests and appeal the decision. In order to cancel the decision, the lawyer submitted an application to the competent court and, having learned that the case was taken up by a representative of the judicial authority with close relations with him, he appealed to him to make a decision in favor of his acquaintance. The latter, promising to issue the court act with the expected outcome, demanded a bribe of AMD 3,000,000. The lawyer informed the mentioned person about this through their common acquaintance, who accepted the bribe offer, but agreed to pay a bribe of AMD 2,000,000. This is reported by the RA Anti-Corruption Committee; After that, the lawyer, by removing the obstacles, assisted in receiving a bribe for an illegal action by an official permanently holding a position in the judiciary, in April 2025, through his daughter, he received AMD 2,000,000, which is the subject of a bribe, from the said person. At the same time, the lawyer, with the intention of concealing the criminal actions of himself and his accomplices, drew up and presented to the bribe-giver a formal contract on the "provision of legal services", thus trying to give a legal appearance to the described criminal acts, after which the decision of the financial arbitration court of the Union of Banks of Armenia was annulled by a decision made by a permanent official in the field of judicial power. The lawyer was charged with assisting in receiving a bribe by a representative of the judicial authority under Article 46-435, Part 3, Clause 2 of the RA Criminal Code, the bribed person was charged with Article 436, Part 2, Clause 3 of the RA Criminal Code, and the person who assisted in the bribery was charged with Article 46-435, Part 3, Clause 2 of the RA Criminal Code. Arrest was applied to the lawyer as a preventive measure, which was later replaced by house arrest and bail. The preliminary investigation in the criminal proceedings has been completed, and the materials of the proceedings have been sent to the RA Anti-Corruption Court with an indictment.

The legal team of businessman Samvel Karapetyan has issued a statement:

"On October 13, 2025, at the end of the working day, we were informed by the Anti-Corruption Court that the request for the extension of the detention of national philanthropist and businessman Samvel Karapetyan had been assigned to Judge V. Dolmazyan. Let us recall that the request had been submitted by the investigator on October 11, and it took such a long time to find a ‘candidate’ for assignment.

The judge to whom this obviously unfounded request was assigned is known to the public as a judge who makes decisions exclusively in favor of the authorities in high-profile cases. What is even more remarkable is that, upon receiving the materials, the judge already committed a significant violation by scheduling a hearing in less than 24 hours. Incidentally, there was no urgency in this case at all, since the detention term was set to expire on October 18. These actions are also completely devoid of any legal logic.

The undeniable fact of political persecution against Samvel Karapetyan has been confirmed. Such gross violations of rights are obvious and unprecedented."