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    Emil Lazarian
  • 6 years ago
    • Categories: 2020

Former NSS Director Artur Vanetsyan questioned by investigators

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 11:59, 31 January, 2020

YEREVAN, JANUARY 31, ARMENPRESS. Former National Security Service Director Artur Vanetsyan has been questioned at the Investigations Committee, the investigative agency’s spokesperson Naira Harutyunyan told ARMENPRESS.

She said that Vanetsyan, who is also a former President of the Football Federation of Armenia, was questioned as a witness amid the criminal investigation into the 2018 wiretapping case as well as another criminal investigation into misconduct committed at the federation.

In 2018, when Vanetsyan was NSS Director, his phone conversation with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan was wiretapped and the audio recording was leaked online. Vanetsyan’s phone conversation with Special Investigations Service director Sasun Khachatryan was also leaked. In the audio recordings they are discussing high profile criminal proceedings against ex-president Robert Kocharyan and Yuri Khachaturov, a former military commander who also served as CSTO secretary general. Separate investigations are underway, one to determine whether the discussions constitute obstruction of justice and another is focused on the illegal wiretapping itself.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan




Emil Lazarian: “I should like to see any power of the world destroy this race, this small tribe of unimportant people, whose wars have all been fought and lost, whose structures have crumbled, literature is unread, music is unheard, and prayers are no more answered. Go ahead, destroy Armenia . See if you can do it. Send them into the desert without bread or water. Burn their homes and churches. Then see if they will not laugh, sing and pray again. For when two of them meet anywhere in the world, see if they will not create a New Armenia.” - WS