Khachaturov’s immunity does not apply in Armenia

On July 26, 2018, the Yerevan City Court of General Jurisdiction examined the issue of detention of the CSTO Secretary General based on the petition by Special Investigation Service, and decided to apply a bail of 5 million AMD as a preventive measure. In response, there were numerous media publications in which the Armenian government was accused of violating Khachaturov’s diplomatic immunity. Meanwhile, Yuri Khachaturov has no diplomatic immunity in Armenia.

The issue of the immunity of the Secretary General of the Collective Security Treaty Organization is regulated by the 2002 Agreement on the Legal Status of the Collective Security Treaty Organization.

In accordance with Article 11 of the said Agreement, the Secretary General and his family members shall enjoy immunity in the territory of the state where they are at the moment as specified in the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, 1961, if they are not citizens of the country where they are at the moment. At the same time, according to Article 1 of the Agreement, the “state of being” means the member state where the secretariat of the organization is located or the organization’s event is being held.

As it is known, Yuri Khachaturov is a citizen of Armenia, and at the time when his criminal prosecution began, he did not travel to Armenia to participate in any CSTO event. Therefore, diplomatic immunity cannot apply to him.

It should be reminded that Colonel General Yuri Khachaturov is accused of violent overthrow of the constitutional order by a group of people (including ex-President Robert Kocharyan and Defense Minister Michael Harutyunyan), which consisted in the violation of the political neutrality of the Armed Forces and their use against peaceful demonstrators, which violated the norms (constitutional order) stipulated in Articles 1 to 5 and Part 1 of Article 6 of the RA Constitution.