On July 7, 2025, Prosecutor General Anna Vardapetyan, in accordance with the procedure prescribed by the Constitutional Law “Rules of Procedure of the National Assembly,” submitted a motion to the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia to give consent for initiating criminal prosecution against Artur Lavrent Sargsyan, Member of the Eighth Convocation of the National Assembly.

The Prosecutor General specifically stated:

“Within the timeframe prescribed by the Constitutional Law “Rules of Procedure of the National Assembly”, I will briefly present the motion to give consent for initiating criminal prosecution against Artur Lavrent Sargsyan. The motion has been officially submitted to the National Assembly and published on its official website.

On March 18, 2025, the General Department for Investigation of Crimes against the State, Fundamentals of the Constitutional Order and Public Security of the Investigative Committee received a proper report from the Senior Operative Officer of the Main Directorate of Protection of Constitutional Order and Fight against Terrorism of the National Security Service of the Republic of Armenia, stating that Vazgen Petros Galstanyan, Artur Lavrent Sargsyan, Movses Ruben Sharbatyan, Hayk Samvel Shahnazaryan, Tigran Vahe Topalyan, Igor Tadevos Sarksyan and other individuals, by prior concent, had prepared to commit acts of terrorism and usurpation of power between July 2024 and March 14, 2025.

Based on the aforementioned report and the attached materials, on March 18, 2025, the General Department for Investigation of Crimes against the State, Fundamentals of the Constitutional Order and Public Security of the Investigative Committee of the Republic of Armenia initiated criminal proceedings No. 58207025 under part 1 of Article 43-308 and part 1 of Article 43-419 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Armenia.

On July 3, 2025, in accordance with point 14 of part 1 of Article 38 of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Republic of Armenia, the prosecutor supervising over the legality of the preliminary investigation of criminal proceedings No. 58207025 submitted a proposal to apply to the competent authority with a motion to obtain consent for initiating criminal prosecution against a person enjoying immunity from criminal prosecution.

According to the proposal submitted by the supervising prosecutor, the investigation has obtained sufficient evidence for initiating public criminal prosecution against Artur Lavrent Sargsyan, Member of the Eighth Convocation of the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia, under part 1 of Article 43-308 and part 1 of Article 43-419 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Armenia, on the grounds that he, together with a group of individuals, prepared to commit acts of terrorism and usurpation of power.

During several months of carrying out the movement named “Sacred Struggle,” initiated and led by Vazgen Galstanyan, and failing to achieve the movement’s goal of usurpation of power in the Republic of Armenia through methods permitted by the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia, starting from November 2024, he aimed to realize that goal through methods not permitted by the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia. For the implementation of this objective, together with a number of participants of the movement — Artur Sargsyan, Arsen Ghazaryan, Hayk Shahnazaryan, Movses Sharbatyan, Tigran Topalyan, Lidia Mantashyan, Hrayr Hakobyan, Karo Okumushyan, Igor Sargsyan, Ara Rostomyan, Arman Israelian, Aghvan Arshakyan, Armen Aleksanyan, Mihran Makhsudyan, Davit Galstanyan, and others — by prior concent and acting as a group, they acquired tools and means necessary for committing acts of terrorism and for usurping power, as well as deliberately created other conditions for the realization of that goal, thereby committing preparation for the usurpation of power.

In order to implement their criminal objective of usurping power in the Republic of Armenia, Artur Sargsyan, Vazgen Galstanyan, and the other members of the criminal group planned to commit acts of terrorism, i.e., acts posing a threat of depriving civilians of life, causing grave or moderate harm to their health, inflicting large-scale property damage, and other grave consequences — thereby aiming to terrorize the population, create an uncontrollable situation among the public, disrupt the functioning of public authorities, and coerce those holding power in accordance with the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia to relinquish that power.

Preparing to carry out the aforementioned criminal acts, the members of the criminal group, including Artur Sargsyan, since January 2025, through participants and sympathizers of the movement, have already recruited more than 2,000 persons included in strike groups; in order to isolate major streets and plan the operations, they acquired a map of Yerevan city; for the purpose of disabling, they obtained information regarding the locations of traffic lights, electrical power, and internet supply cable disconnectors; they ordered and obtained thousands of explosive devices intended for detonations and gunfire, as well as sharp metal parts known as “stars” suitable for damaging vehicle tires and paralyzing transport movement; paints and oils intended to be spilled on vehicle windows and roads; these items were kept in appropriate hideouts. They continued recruiting persons to the strike groups while during meetings with group leaders, they assured the latter that the planned actions were the only way to achieve success, instructing them in turn to take measures to strengthen the vigilance, readiness, and will of the group members to carry out the given assignment at any cost.

Artur Sargsyan, Vazgen Galstanyan, and other members of the criminal group were unable to commence the performance of the relevant actions constituting the objective side of their intent to commit crimes, i.e. terrorism and usurpation of power by means not envisaged by the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia, seizure of the powers of the Government of the Republic of Armenia and the National Assembly, due to the fact that these actions were uncovered by the officers of the National Security Service of the Republic of Armenia during the preparation stage.

In other words, commission of criminal offenses provided for in part 1 of Article 43-308 and part 1 of Article 43-419 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Armenia are artibuted to Artur Sargsyan.

The commission of the above-mentioned criminal acts by Artur Sargsyan, Member of the Eighth Convocation of the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia, has been established by a number of factual data obtained during the preliminary investigation of the criminal proceedings.

Thus, assessing the evidence collected in the course of the criminal proceedings in terms of relevance, admissibility, credibility, and the combination of all evidence in terms of sufficiency, it should be stated that there are sufficient facts to initiate public criminal prosecution against Artur Lavrent Sargsyan, Member of the Eighth Convocation of the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia, under part 1 of Article 43-308 and part 1 of Article 43-419 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Armenia. Therefore, based on the proposal of the supervising prosecutor to apply to the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia for obtaining consent to initiate public criminal prosecution against Artur Lavrent Sargsyan, Member of The Eighth Convocation of the National Assembly, and guided by Article 96 of the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia, Article 108 of the Constitutional Law “Regulations of Procedure of the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia” and point 9 of  part 1 of Article 37 of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Republic of Armenia;

I HEREBY SUBMIT A MOTION

To give consent for initiating public criminal prosecution against Artur Lavrent Sargsyan, Member of the Eighth Convocation of the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia."