Electoral Commission strips Narek Karapetyan’s parliamentary immunity

[00:00:01]This is Daily Armenia, CivilNet's daily news digest. Here's what's making headlines in Armenia today.

[00:00:10]Armenia's Central Electoral Commission has approved a request by prosecutors this afternoon to strip Narek Karapetyan, nephew of Strong Armenia party leader and billionaire Samvel Karapetyan, of his parliamentary immunity. Because Samvel Karapetyan is ineligible to hold public office due to holding foreign citizenships, Narek was chosen to lead Strong Armenia's party list during June's national elections.

[00:00:30]The CEC, however, returned the prosecutor's request to detain Karapetyan, a move his lawyer, Aram Vardevanyan, said was effectively a rejection of the detention request.

[00:00:39]Vardevanyan, a lawyer affiliated with Strong Armenia, decried the decision to strip immunity, arguing that under Armenian constitutional law, only the parliament itself has the authority to strip deputies of their legal immunity.

[00:00:49]According to Vardevanyan, the case against Karapetyan is in connection to another criminal prosecution of Strong Armenia member Aleksan Aleksanyan, who stands accused of large-scale money laundering and vote buying.

[00:00:59]Nevertheless, yesterday the CEC announced the composition of the newly formed Armenian parliament, a list which included Karapetyan in Strong Armenia's top spot. In related news, Armenian prosecutors have dropped one of the tax evasion charges facing Armenian billionaire and leader of the opposition Prosperous Armenia party, Gagik Tsarukyan, Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty's Armenian language service reported. Tsarukyan was later transferred into isolation, and one of his lawyers has reportedly been blocked from working on the case and summoned to testify as part of the trial. Tsarukyan was arrested and placed in pre-trial detention this month following June 7th's national elections in which his party fell just below the vote share needed to enter Armenia's parliament.

[00:01:35]The billionaire has been charged with a number of fraud and tax evasion charges, and several of Tsarukyan's high-profile businesses have been seized by Armenian authorities.

[00:01:45]Human rights lawyer Siranush Sahakyan says she has filed an application with the European Court of Human Rights on behalf of former Nagorno-Karabakh State Minister Ruben Vardanyan, alleging multiple violations of the European Convention on Human Rights during his prosecution and imprisonment in Azerbaijan. In a statement published on Vardanyan's Facebook page, Sahakyan says the application was submitted on Sunday and alleges violations of eight articles of the convention. The case challenges both the conduct of Vardanyan's trial and the legal basis of his conviction.

[00:02:12]In February, a Baku military court sentenced Vardanyan to 20 years in prison after convicting him on dozens of charges, including terrorism-related offenses, all of which he denies, calling them politically motivated.

[00:02:22]Sahakyan argues the verdict failed to establish Vardanyan's individual criminal responsibility with evidence.

[00:02:27]She said the court instead treated the former Nagorno-Karabakh authorities as a criminal organization, characterized Vardanyan's appointment to a civilian government post as a violent seizure of power, and interpreted his businesses, charitable activities, and entry into Nagorno-Karabakh through the Lachin corridor as criminal acts. According to Sahakyan, Vardanyan chose not to appeal the verdict in Azerbaijan because he considers the proceedings a sham trial and believes domestic legal remedies would not be effective. Vardanyan is one of 19 Armenian detainees currently held in Azerbaijan, who were captured in the days following the fall of Nagorno-Karabakh in September 2023.

[00:02:58]International human rights organizations and his legal team have repeatedly raised concerns about their detention conditions and the fairness of the trials.

[00:03:09]And finally, the CivilNet number of the day is 1,800,000.

[00:03:13]That's because Armenia's newly established public health insurance system reached nearly 1.8 million beneficiaries this past June, according to a statement made by Samvel Harutyunyan, acting chief executive officer of the Universal Health Insurance Fund. This represents a 14% increase in the number of beneficiaries since the program came into effect in January of this year. According to Harutyunyan, the increase was largely driven by growth in the number of new beneficiaries who earned a monthly salary of over 200,000 dram, or about $550 a month. When the system had first been introduced in January of 2026, only the elderly, children, those receiving public benefits, and those making under 200,000 drams a month had have eligible for the program. Of the 1.8 million total recipients, Harazyan stated that 762,404 had utilized the system to access medical services. This includes 35,961 who had used the service to receive medicines. During these 6 months, beneficiaries have already received more than $280 million worth of reimbursed medical services and medicines, Harazyan said.

[00:04:16]And as always, please follow CivilNet for the latest news and independent reporting from our contributors on the ground here in Armenia.

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