Friday,
Samvel Babayan Freed By High Court
• Karlen Aslanian
Armenia - Samvel Babayan, a retired army general, is greeted by supporters in
Yerevan after being released from prison, .
Samvel Babayan, a retired army general critical of Armenia’s former leadership,
was set free on Friday more than six months after being controversially
sentenced to six years in prison for illegal arms acquisition and money
laundering.
The Court of Cassation, the highest body of criminal justice in the country,
overturned the guilty verdict that was upheld by a lower appeals court in
February and said the case must be investigated anew. In the meantime, it said,
Babayan must be released from custody.
The high court also freed two other men who were tried with Babayan and
sentenced to three and two years’ imprisonment last November.
The court cited letters from more than a dozen Armenian parliamentarians
guaranteeing that Babayan will cooperate with law-enforcement and judicial
authorities if set free. Each of those lawmakers also posted bail worth 500,000
drams (just over $1,000).
Babayan, 52, was the commander of Nagorno-Karabakh’s Armenian-backed army
during and after the 1991-1994 war with Azerbaijan. He was widely regarded as
the unrecognized republic’s most powerful man at that time.
Babayan was arrested in 2000 and subsequently sentenced to 14 years in prison
for allegedly masterminding a botched attempt on the life of the then Karabakh
president, Arkady Ghukasian. He was set free in 2004.
Babayan criticized the authorities in Yerevan and Stepanakert after returning
to Armenia in May 2016 from Russia where he lived for five years.
The once powerful general was again arrested in March 2017 after Armenia’s
National Security Service (NSS) claimed to have confiscated a surface-to-air
rocket system smuggled to the country.
The arrest came about two weeks before Armenia’s last parliamentary elections.
Babayan unofficially coordinated the election campaign of the ORO alliance led
by former Defense Minister Seyran Ohanian and two other opposition politicians.
ORO condemned the criminal case as politically motivated.
Armenia - Samvel Babayan (R), Nagorno-Karabakh's former military leader, stands
trial in Yerevan, 20Nov2017.
Babayan repeatedly denied prosecutors’ claims that he promised to pay his
longtime associate Sanasar Gabrielian $50,000 for the delivery of the
shoulder-fired Igla rocket. Gabrielian, who received the three-year prison
sentence, claimed that he wanted to donate the launcher along with its
shoulder-fired rockets to the Karabakh army.
Babayan was greeted by several dozen supporters when he emerged from a prison
in downtown Yerevan in the afternoon. Speaking to reporters, he said that he
was jailed because former President Serzh Sarkisian sought to prevent ORO from
winning any seats in the parliament.
Law-enforcement authorities have until now denied political motives behind the
case. They never explained why Babayan would seek to get hold of the rocket
designed to shoot down planes and helicopters.
Babayan’s release from prison was clearly made possible by the recent change of
Armenia’s government. The country’s new Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian has
pledged to help free all “political prisoners.”
The retired general claimed that Sarkisian’s representatives approached him
during the massive anti-government demonstrations launched by Pashinian in
April. He said they asked him to call for an end to the protests and promised
that he would be freed in return. He said he rejected the offer.
Babayan also said that he has no plans to return to Karabakh. He warned against
attempts to “destabilize” the situation there.
The authorities in Stepanakert have faced street protests and even some calls
for their resignation in recent weeks.
Armenian Agricultural Exports Jump In 2018
Armenia - A worker at a commercial greenhouse in Ararat province, 19Apr2017.
Armenia’s exports of fresh fruits and vegetables have doubled so far this year,
with Russia remaining their principal destination, the Ministry of Agriculture
said on Friday.
Figures released by the ministry show that they totaled almost 67,300 metric
tons as of June 15, compared with 33,820 in the same period of 2017.
The National Statistical Service (NSS) reported earlier that Armenian
agricultural exports more than doubled in monetary terms in the first four
months of 2018. They fell by as much as 30 percent in 2017, to $71 million, due
to poor harvests.
Weather conditions have been more favorable this year. According to the
Ministry of Agriculture, Armenia has exported 14,752 tons of apricots since the
beginning of this year, sharply up from just 26 tons in the year-earlier period.
The ministry figures also show that over 95 percent of the 2018 agricultural
exports went to Russia. Armenian exporters enjoy tariff-free access to the
Russia because of their country’s membership in the Eurasian Economic Union
(EEU).
Russian President Vladimir Putin noted rising Armenian exports to Russia when
he met with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian in the Kremlin on Wednesday. Putin
attributed that to Armenia’s membership in the Russian-led trade bloc.
Pashinian described his trip to Moscow as “productive” on Friday. “The
government and its bodies must work hard so that we fully realize the potential
for [greater] fruit and vegetable exports because the Russian market needs
that,” he told a cabinet meeting in Yerevan.
More Armenian Customs Brokers Accused Of Tax Fraud
Armenia - A customs checkpoint on the Armenian-Georgian border, 15Apr2017.
Two more customs brokerage firms operating in Armenia have been accused of
evading of millions of dollars in taxes, it emerged on Friday.
The State Revenue Committee (SRC) said its investigators have raided the
Yerevan offices of the two private firms, Sargsian Import and Arm And Man,
mainly engaged in commercial cargo shipments from China, Turkey and other
nations. They have confiscated financial documents and summoned “many
individuals” for questioning as part of a criminal investigation into of
“large-scale” tax evasion,” the government agency said in a statement.
“According to preliminary calculations, damage inflicted on the state exceeds 2
billion drams ($4.1 million),” read the statement. It did not specify whether
anyone has been formally charged yet.
Many Armenian companies as well as individual entrepreneurs have traditionally
hired brokerage firms to pay import and other duties at the border. Widespread
corruption within the national customs service, which is part of the SRC, has
only added to their dependence on such middlemen. Customs officers have long
enjoyed discretionary powers to estimate the market value of goods imported
from non-Western countries and tax them accordingly.
It was not clear whether the two firms accept the fraud accusations. According
to the SRC statement, one of them is controlled by Bagrat Navoyan, a wealthy
businessman who owns a travel agency and a public transport company. Navoyan is
also the owner of a major Armenian football club, FC Alashkert.
A similar criminal case was brought late last month against another, larger
customs brokerage firm reportedly linked to the former head of the SRC, Vartan
Harutiunian. Armenia’s National Security Service (NSS) claimed that the
company, Norfolk Consulting, has evaded $7 million in taxes since being set up
last summer and obtaining exclusive rights to process imports from China, the
United Arab Emirates and Turkey.
Norfolk’s executive director, Armen Unanian, and two chief accountants were
arrested on May 27.They all were released from custody on June 5.
In a statement reported by Aysor.am last week, Unanian admitted to tax evasion
and said he has already paid an equivalent of $3 million to the government. He
said he will also compensate the state for the rest of the tax shortfall
alleged by the NSS.
A figure close to former Prime Minister Karen Karapetian, Harutiunian resigned
as head of the SRC shortly after Nikol Pashinian was elected prime minister on
May 8. The new SRC chief, Davit Ananian, has promised a tougher crackdown on
companies and individuals underreporting their earnings.
Ananian said on May 24 that Armenia’s tax revenue will be “substantially higher
than planned” this year. It rose by more than 7 percent in 2017.
Former Ruling Party Concerned Over Corruption Probe
• Ruzanna Stepanian
Armenia - Yerevan Mayor Taron Markarian (R) is congratulated by President Serzh
Sarkisian after being sworn in for another term, 12Jun2017.
Former President Serzh Sarkisian’s Republican Party (HHK) expressed concern on
Friday about a corruption investigation launched into a municipal fund overseen
by Yerevan’s HHK-affiliated Mayor Taron Markarian.
Ashot Ghazarian, the executive director of the Yerevan Fund, and Khachatur
Kirakosian, the deputy head of the city’s Davitashen district, were arrested on
Thursday as part of the investigation conducted by the National Security
Service (NSS).
The arrests came the day after NSS officers searched the offices of the Yerevan
Fund located in the main municipal administration building. An NSS statement
said two individuals were recently forced to make hefty payments to the charity
in return for receiving construction permits from the mayor’s office.
The HHK spokesman, Eduard Sharmazanov, criticized the NSS raid witnessed by
journalists, saying that it was too demonstrative. “At least the form of the
NSS actions was not proportionate,” Sharmazanov told RFE/RL’s Armenian service
(Azatutyun.am).
“We are not saying that documents must not be confiscated or that the
municipality or any other body must not be investigated … We just believe that
could have been done a bit more discreetly,” he said.
“We don’t exclude political motives [behind the probe,]” added the deputy
speaker of the Armenian parliament.
Asked whether the former ruling party fears that the NSS is targeting
Markarian, Sharmazanov said: “The investigation will show.”
The Yerevan mayor, who heads the fund’s board of trustees, is a senior member
of the HHK. He came under strong pressure to step down after mass protests led
by Nikol Pashinian, Armenia’s current prime minister, forced Sarkisian to
resign in late April.
Even before the change of government, senior members of Pashinian’s Civil
Contract party alleged that the municipal administration may be extorting
illegal payments to the Yerevan Fund from businesses or citizens. Two of those
politicians, Arayik Harutiunian and Lena Nazarian, sued the fund in March after
it refused to disclose its donors.
Harutiunian, who was appointed as Armenia’s education minister last month,
defended the NSS probe on Friday. “I think that law-enforcement bodies acted
within the framework of their powers,” he said.
Press Review
“Zhoghovurd” reports that two well-known Russian pranksters have posed as
Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian in another phone call to a senior
European official. “The pranksters phoned British Foreign Secretary Boris
Johnson on May 24,” says the paper. “The next phone call was made on June 13.
The pranksters spoke with the OSCE’s secretary general, Thomas Greminger.
Armenia’s authorities have not publicly reacted to that yet. But we should bear
in mind that such incidents could lead to various kinds of provocations
especially given that they contain elements of espionage.”
“Zhamanak” reports that hundreds of people rallied in Echmiadzin on Thursday to
demand the resignation of its Mayor Karen Grigorian, whose father Manvel is a
retired army general leading the Yerkrapah Union of Karabakh war veterans. “The
rally creates sad feelings because it was a criminal party organized by Artur
Asatrian, a crime figure known as ‘Don Pippo,’” comments the paper. It says
that Asatrian is a holder of “dubious” Russian and/or Spanish passports and
wonders why he was allowed by authorities to organize demonstrations in the
country in the first place.
“The government that came to power in the velvet revolution has failed its
first test,” claims “Hayots Ashkhar.” The paper refers to disagreements within
Pashinian’s cabinet on a controversial pension reform launched by the previous
government. It says the disagreements showed “the government’s inability to
jointly move the country forward.” “It could not have been otherwise if we take
into account the basis on which the executive branch was formed,” it says,
arguing that the three political forces making up Pashinian’s government have
not signed any formal and specific agreements on their shared goals.
“Haykakan Zhamanak” reports on fears that a prolonged stoppage of the Metsamor
nuclear plant could push up the cost of electricity generated in the country.
The paper warns that the plant may not operate longer than was planned because
equipment needed for extending the life of its sole reactor has still not been
completely delivered to Armenia. “The reasons for that are weird,” it says.
(Tigran Avetisian)
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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