The Anti-Corruption Committee (ACC) told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service on Monday that it is investigating “reports” that Hovik Aghazarian leaked state secrets to media. It said he is not yet formally a suspect in the case initiated by prosecutors.
Civil Contract’s governing board alleged such leaks on December 3 when it expelled Aghazarian from the party. The decision was announced right after Pashinian shared with board members transcripts of Aghazarian’s personal communication stored in his mobile phone.
The ACC controversially confiscated the phone as part of a separate inquiry launched late last month after the 64-year-old lawmaker refused to give up his parliament seat. Aghazarian, who denies disclosing any state secrets, maintains that Pashinian gained access to its sensitive content illegally.
His lawyer petitioned the Office of the Prosecutor-General last week to investigate the ACC over the breach of personal data. The office, which is headed by a former legal aide to Pashinian, did not open a relevant criminal case.
Nor did the prosecutors order a probe into Aghazarian’s December 5 claims that “powerful” individuals are threatening to publicize intimate details of his private life if he keeps refusing to quit the parliament.
Pashinian stated on December 4 that “political, moral, and other levers” will be used to strip Aghazarian of his parliament seat. The only legal way of doing that is to lift the lawmaker’s immunity from prosecution and convict him of a crime. Critics say Pashinian’s statement amounts to an illegal order issued to investigators and courts.
On December 11, another Civil Contract parliamentarian, Hakob Aslanian, denounced fellow members of Pashinian’s political team for accessing and using Aghazarian’s private data for political purposes. Aslanian said he too read the transcripts but found no state secrets or other sensitive information in them. He said he is therefore suspending his party membership in protest.
Although Aslanian backtracked on that statement a few hours later, Pashinian’s party ousted him from its parliamentary group. It is widely expected to terminate his membership in the party as well.
In what may have been a related development, Pashinian announced at the weekend that Civil Contract will set “higher standards of good behavior” for its members. He said the decision was made during a meeting of senior party figures chaired by him. None of those figures agreed to disclose the new rules of conduct or even comment on them on Monday.
It is thus not yet clear whether the rules will make it harder for Civil Contract members to talk to journalists or will place other restrictions on them.
Pashinian texted on November 17 resignation “requests” to a total of eight officials, including the then heads of the ACC and Armenia’s judicial oversight body. All of them except Aghazarian stepped down in the following days.
The resignations were widely construed as being part of Pashinian’s efforts to boost his flagging popularity and/or tighten his grip on his party before the next parliamentary elections expected in June 2026 or earlier. Some analysts say the premier fears that Aghazarian’s defiant stance could set a dangerous precedent and lead to more such revolts.
