Armenia’s former defense minister Davit Tonoyan stated today that the court is trying to keep him in custody as long as possible, trying to prevent “the final collapse of this fabricated criminal case.”

Davit Tonoyan said in the statement:

“On December 29, 2022, in the decision on rejecting the petition for bail, the court recorded that the subpoenaed witnesses ‘whose testimonies are important and may have a significant impact on the interpretation and evaluation of a number of examined documents’ have not been questioned yet.  The court also described as “biased” the opinion of my defense attorneys that the circumstances the charges against me were based on were refuted by the examined evidence.

However, the court did not invite any witnesses to the January 10 hearing, despite the statement made by the judge at the previous - December 27, 2022 - hearing that at least five witnesses would be called to the January 10 hearing.

At least 2 court hearings were interrupted due to power outages, and during the examination of evidence, the necessary technical means were either not provided or did not work. Some court hearings were not held due to the overwork of judges and the prosecutors, and now they reason it with the judge being on duty.

I assess all this as an intent to keep me in custody as long as possible and as an unsuccessful attempt to prevent the final collapse of this fabricated criminal case.”