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    Emil Lazarian
  • 5 years ago
    • Categories: 2020

Court of Appeals revokes arrest warrant for ex-ambassador to Vatican Mikayel Minasyan

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 14:27, 16 December, 2020

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 16, ARMENPRESS.  The Court of Appeals has overturned an arrest warrant issued by a lower court that would allow the State Revenue Committee’s investigators to place the former Armenian Ambassador to the Vatican Mikayel Minasyan in pre-trial detention amid an ongoing investigation into alleged money laundering, illicit enrichment and falsification of asset disclosures.

Minasyan, who is the son-in-law of the 3rd President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan, denies wrongdoing and claims that the charges are fabricated and politically motivated.  He is declared wanted by Armenian authorities.

Mikayel Minasyan served as Armenian Ambassador to the Holy See from 2013 to 2018. He was concurrently Armenia’s Ambassador to the Sovereign Military Order of Malta from 2014-2018 and to Portugal from 2017 to 2018.

He is one of the most outspoken critics of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and his administration.

Editing and Translating 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