ECHR communicates Tonoyan complaint to Armenian government

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has communicated to the Armenian government a complaint filed on behalf of former Defense Minister Davit Tonoyan alleging violations of his rights to liberty and security, his legal team said on Monday.

The application, submitted by lawyer Irina Danielyan, has been accepted for examination under the court’s well-established case-law procedure, which applies to cases raising issues on which the court has already developed consistent jurisprudence.

The complaint concerns the lawfulness and length of Tonoyan’s pre-trial detention, the reasoning of domestic court decisions and compliance with the principles of legal certainty and equality of arms.

Tonoyan spent nearly three years in pre-trial detention. The current proceedings before the ECHR relate solely to alleged violations of the European Convention on Human Rights and do not address the question of his guilt or the outcome of the criminal case.

His legal team also noted that Armenia’s Court of Cassation has accepted for review a similar appeal in Tonoyan’s case but has not issued a ruling for more than a year. Domestic proceedings remain ongoing, they said.