In the summer of 2025, "Hraparak" wrote that an Armenian female diplomat was arrested at the airport on charges of espionage or treason, which was followed by searches at the Foreign Ministry, the seizure of computers and documents, but in response to all our inquiries, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and investigative bodies vigorously denied this information. However, a few days later it became known that the newly appointed consul in Austria, Ashkhen Aleksanyan, who had a personal relationship with an Azerbaijani, was arrested by the RA law enforcement officers for passing on information that was a state secret. The Internet was abuzz with this information, the girl's photo was published, accusations were made against her.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs immediately removed all information about Aleksanyan and even the appointment order from its website. The investigative committee issued a statement. "On June 20, 2025, on the basis of a report received from the RA National Security Service, a criminal proceeding was initiated in the Main Department of the Investigation of Crimes Against the State, Fundamentals of the Constitutional Order and Public Security of the RA Investigative Committee under Article 418, Part 1 and Article 424, Part 1 of the Criminal Code, for espionage by an employee of the RA Ministry of Foreign Affairs, access to information containing state secrets to a representative of a foreign state. regarding the case of committing state treason by providing assistance for hostile activities. During the preliminary investigation of the criminal proceedings, a public criminal prosecution was initiated against the RA MFA employee under Article 418, Part 1 of the Criminal Code (state treason). Aleksanyan did not accept the accusation, he was detained, but the defense attorney claimed that the accusation was baseless.
And about a month ago, the first instance court of Yerevan city acquitted Aleksanyan on the charge of treason, requalifying the accusation. According to the court, Aleksanyan's actions have features not of state treason, but of the act provided for by Article 441, Part 1 of the RA Criminal Code (abuse of official or official powers or the influence caused by them or passing of powers). It turns out that the young woman was denounced by the investigator-prosecutor, accused of being a state traitor, people incensed by the accusation insulted her on social networks, but it turned out that she was innocent, at least there was no treason or espionage. Ashkhen Aleksanyan's defense attorney Abgar Poghosyan told Hraparak that the court of first instance issued a verdict and sentenced his client to 2 years in prison, which they also disagree with and will appeal the verdict to the Court of Appeal. "It is always difficult to find a person previously convicted under this article who has actually been imprisoned, it is a crime of medium severity, it starts with a fine.
We will appeal to the Court of Appeals, both regarding the punishment and the guilt, because there is no crime in his act." The lawyer mentioned that after the verdict becomes legal, they will start a legal process related to the criminal accusation of denouncing the woman, labeling her a "state traitor". "We will go outside the domestic courts, because it concerns the fate of a person. There is no crime in the reclassified act, there is no crime in general. In any case, the court conducted a high-quality, textbook investigation, with the composition of another court, I might have thought that a person was found guilty of some article in order to save the face of the law enforcement officers."
According to the lawyer, Ashkhen Aleksanyan was recently appointed as a consul in Vienna, but he did not manage to assume the position, the Investigative Committee called him for questioning, he went on his own and submitted the necessary documents to the pre-investigation body, assisting the investigation.
