Armenia suspends prosecution of Karabakh separatists’ ex-commander

The criminal prosecution against the former commander of the Karabakh separatist forces, Lt-Gen Jalal Harutyunyan has been suspended in Armenia.

Press Secretary of Armenia’s Investigative Committee Gor Abrahamyan made the remarks talking to the Armenian media outlet, Caliber.Az reports.

He said that in the context of the investigative measures it had been decided to appoint a commission of military expertise.

On this basis, the investigator submitted a request to the Prosecutor General's Office to suspend the criminal prosecution until the expertise and the relevant conclusion are completed.

Abrahamyan noted that the conclusion will be of key importance in terms of further legal assessment.

To remind, On September 2, Armenia's Investigative Committee (IC) filed criminal charges of negligence against Jalal Harutyunyan, the chief commander of Karabakh’s armed forces for the first month of the war. He was seriously wounded in a missile strike on October 26, 2020, and after he recovered, he was reassigned to head an Armenian military inspectorate. Following the charges, he has been suspended from service.

The IC indictment said that Jalal Harutyunyan had ordered two army units to launch an attack against Azerbaijani forces southeast of Nagorno-Karabakh despite the fact that they were outnumbered and lacked situational awareness and air superiority. The counteroffensive resulted in 20 soldiers killed and 19 tanks and eight howitzers destroyed, the IC said.