‘It would be regretful if wiretapping was committed from within the National Security Service’, says director Vanetsyan

National Security Service director Arthur Vanetsyan says an investigation will be launched into the wiretapping of his phone conversation with Special Investigative Service director Sasun Khachatryan.

Speaking at a press conference today, Vanetsyan said that it will be very regretful if it turns out that the conversation has been wiretapped within the National Security Service.

He said that he has been notified that the general prosecution has launched criminal proceedings over the case.

“The NSS and the SIS have recently assumed the role of eradicating lawlessness in the country. Our work is being accepted very positively by the public. The main goal of the disclosure of the recording is to weaken us, the NSS and the SIS, so that we leave our work unfinished. However we have will and decisiveness to finish it,” he said.

A reporter mentioned that in the recording Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan is saying that CSTO Secretary General Yuri Khachaturov must be arrested, and the NSS director replied to the reporter that the PM had simply said that there cannot be any political obstruction for the lawful process of the criminal case.

“The Prime Minister didn’t say lock him up, he had said that persons under investigation, regardless of their names and positions, must be held to account, if there are grounds to arrest and bring them to responsibility,” he said.

Vanetsyan also said that he hasn’t spoken to the judge who issued the arrest warrant for former President Robert Kocharyan, claiming that he doesn’t know the judge and hasn’t even seen his face.

“Certain inaccuracies might have been in the conversation because we could’ve never imagines that it can be recorded and made public,” he said.