Armenia’s Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) reported today that its acting chairman, Gagik Jahangiryan, has resigned due to health reasons.

Jahangiryan’s resignation follows a leaked audio tape during which he appears to blackmail his predecessor, Ruben Vardazaryan.

Last week, Vardazaryan published a recording of a conversation he secretly recorded between him and Jhangiryan that took place at a February 2021 dinner meeting during which Jhangiryan is heard urging Vardazaryan to voluntarily resign from the position of the chairman of the council.

The meeting took place two months before Vardazaryan was controversially dismissed by other SJC members amidst growing tensions with ArmenianPM Nikol Pashinyan.

In the recording, replete with expletives uttered by him, Jahangiryan warns Vardazaryan to setp down or face criminal charges.

Opposition and civil society groups immediately called for Jahangiryan’s resignation after the fourteen-minute audio recording went public.

Opposition media outlets in Armenia have accused Jahangiryan of pressuring judges to approve arrest warrants for opposition figures prosecuted on various charges.

Jahangiryan dismissed calls for his resignation, arguing that he merely “tried to trick Vardazaryan to resign”.

The SJC later said the edited recording wasn’t sufficient evidence to take disciplinary measures against Jahangiryan who was appointed to the post of SJC acting head in April 2021.