Hraparak: National Security Service 'engaged in wiretapping of judges'  

The National Security Service (NSS), whose main task is to handle internal and external security issues, is thought to have got entangled in a political process to serve what the paper claims "Nikol Pashinyan's political program".

The paper notes that the NSS embarked on an active "vetting" of judges after the prime minister's May 2019 call for blocking all the court houses in Armenia (as part of the government program to enact radical justice reforms).

Though the vetting, as a process, was rejected by international organizations, all those people were taken under control in what was widely perceived as a "hunt for judges".

But the judges, who are thought to be literate enough - and not absolutely naive - manage, by and large, to avoid the authorities' snare, says the paper, admitting at the same time that some of them nonetheless failed to observe the necessary caution.

The NSS subsequently initiated an active wiretapping process which is continuing today and which, reportedly, targets not only judges but also their family members, aides and other clerks , as well as advocates who at times appear to act as mediators between their clients and judges. The judges are not only wiretapped but also secretly videotaped - through hidden cameras placed in their offices to keep them under a 24/7 surveillance.

Citing "informed sources", the paper claims that such a "close oversight" helped actually reveal the criminal cases dealing with the so called bankruptcy court. The judges under "monitoring" lacked the caution to avoid speaking on certain topics, while their statements were subsequently wiretapped to form part of a criminal proceeding. Video  surveillance also reportedly revealed certain breaches of the "code of ethics", says the paper, adding that the "documentary evidence" is expected to go viral soon.

The paper describes the kind of actions as a blind obedience to the prime minister's commands through "all the permissible and impermissible methods".

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