ARMENIA DROPS GRAFT PROBE INTO EX-MINISTER

Agence France Presse
July 24, 2013 Wednesday 10:55 AM GMT

YEREVAN, July 24 2013

Armenian security services said Wednesday that they had dropped a
graft probe into an ex-foreign minister after he paid back taxes to
settle a case he dismissed as politically motivated.

The national security service said it had ended its year-long
investigation into money laundering involving the Civilitas Foundation
think tank of Vartan Oskanian, a former loyalist-turned-critic of
the ruling party, after he agreed to pay almost $50,000 on lesser
charges of non-payment of taxes.

“Taking into account the payment of outstanding debts, the
investigative organ has decided to stop the criminal investigation,”
the security service said in a statement.

Oskanian served as foreign minister from 1998 to 2008 but stood
as a candidate in parliamentary elections last year for Prosperous
Armenia, a party led by a super-rich former arm wrestling champion
which refused to rejoin the governing coalition after the polls.

President Serzh Sarkisian’s governing Republican party won a majority
of seats in the legislature and Sarkisian himself secured reelection
as president with a thumping victory at polls in February.

Despite saying the vote was an improvement on previous polls,
observers criticised the elections in the former Soviet state for
lacking genuine competition after a string of prominent opponents
refused to challenge Sarkisian.

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