Epress.am News from Armenia
According to a US cable dated March 7, 2008, and released by WikiLeaks on August 30, 2011, the Constitutional Court of Armenia received a call from the presidential residence, being pressured into not recognizing the violation of the rights of presidential election candidate Levon Ter-Petrossian.
News about government interference in the Court's affairs was conveyed to US Embassy officials by Constitutional Court justice Valery Poghosyan. This was recalled today by Armenian National Congress MP Nikol Pashinyan, when the National Assembly was discussing the matter of appointing a new member of the Constitutional Court.
Recall, the Constitutional Court rejected Ter-Petrossian's claim alleging vote fraud in the 2008 presidential election. Armenia's parliament today discussed the candidacy of Arayik Tunyan (pictured), who aspires to be a Constitutional Court member, replacing the recently retired Valery Poghosyan.
"Let me ask you a direct question: was it you who called the Constitutional Court?" Pashinyan asked the candidate, recalling that Tunyan has been working at the presidential office since 2005, becoming head of the legal department since 2007.
Tunyan said he was not aware of what is being mentioned.
Pashinyan sought clarification of the response by asking whether Tunyan is denying he made the call or whether he is not aware of the leaked document, as well as whether an official investigation was carried out at the presidential palace.
"If no such thing happened, why conduct an investigation?" Tunyan replied.