Monday, June 8, 2020
Ex-President’s Son-In-Law Faces More Charges
• Naira Bulghadarian
Armenia-Former Armenian Ambassador to the Vatican Mikael Minasian,undated
Four days after Armenia’s Court of Appeals revoked an arrest warrant issued for
Mikael Minasian, investigators said on Monday that they have broadened
corruption charges brought against former President Serzh Sarkisian’s fugitive
son-in-law.
The State Revenue Committee (SRC) said Minasian has been charged with more
counts of “illegal enrichment,” false asset disclosure and money laundering. It
claimed to have collected an “unprecedented” amount of information about his
dubious financial activities.
Minasian, who rejects the accusations as politically motivated, was first
indicted in March one month before the SRC moved to arrest him. A district court
in Yerevan agreed to issue an arrest warrant for him on May 6. However, the
Court of Appeals overturned that decision on Thursday.
One of Minasian’s lawyers, Amram Makinian, scoffed at the investigators’
decision to bring more and “equally baseless” charges against Armenia’s former
ambassador to the Vatican. He said that Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian could not
come to terms with the Court of Appeals ruling.
Makinian said earlier that the money laundering charge stems from large sums of
cash which Minasian transferred from one of his bank accounts to another in
2017-2018. The lawyer also claimed that the other accusations are based on a
“technical error” committed by the employee of a private firm which drew up and
filed his client’s income declarations.
In a statement released on Monday, the SRC charged that Minasian had also failed
to declare his “de facto” ownership of a 49 percent stake in Armenia’s largest
food-exporting company, Spayka. The stake formally belonged to another person,
Roza Stepanian. She too has been indicted as part of the same criminal case,
according to the statement.
In a related development, Hrachya Hakobian, a pro-government lawmaker and
Pashinian’s brother-in-law, said that investigators have recovered thousands of
deleted files from a computer that belonged to Minasian. He claimed that the
files contain detailed information about Minasian’s financial transactions and
illegally acquired assets.
Hakobian refused to say how he gained access to the supposedly classified SRC
data when he was contacted by RFE/RL’s Armenian service.
Minasian, 42, enjoyed considerable political and economic influence in Armenia
when it was ruled by his father-in-law from 2008-2018. He is also thought to
have developed extensive business interests in various sectors of the Armenian
economy.
A bitter critic of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian, Minasian left Armenia shortly
after he was dismissed as ambassador to the Vatican in late 2018. He has
declined to reveal his current whereabouts in a series of video messages posted
on Facebook in recent weeks.
Minasian has said that he is not returning to Armenia because he believes that
the investigators are acting on Pashinian’s orders. He has also accused the
prime minister of corruption and misrule.
For his part, Pashinian has repeatedly accused Minasian of illegally making a
huge fortune during Sarkisian’s rule.
Former Judge In Kocharian Case Acquitted
• Naira Bulghadarian
Armenia -- District court judge Davit Grigorian leaves the courtroom after
ordering former President Robert Kocharian's release from prison, May 18, 2019.
A court in Yerevan has thrown out controversial criminal charges brought against
a judge who ordered former President Robert Kocharian’s release from prison a
year ago.
The judge, Davit Grigorian, presided over the ongoing trial of Kocharian and
three other former officials when it got underway in May 2019. A few days later,
he not only agreed to free the ex-president but also suspended the trial,
questioning the legality of coup charges brought against him.
The decisions angered political allies and supporters of Prime Minister Nikol
Pashinian. Heeding Pashinian’s calls, hundreds of them blocked the entrances to
court buildings across Armenia. Pashinian demanded a mandatory “vetting” of all
Armenian judges, saying that many of them remain linked to the country’s
“corrupt” former leadership.
Kocharian was arrested again in June 2019 after Armenia’s Court of Appeals
overturned Grigorian’s decisions. Three weeks later, law-enforcement officers
searched and sealed the judge’s offices. Later in July, a state body overseeing
the Armenian judiciary suspended Grigorian and allowed the Special Investigative
Service (SIS) to prosecute him.
Grigorian denied the ensuing accusations of document forgery brought against him
and his secretary. He considers them government retribution for Kocharian
release.
Investigators have denied any connection between the Kocharian case and
Grigorian’s prosecution. Prosecutors endorsed the accusations and sent the case
to a Yerevan district court last month, paving the way for the suspended judge’s
trial.
It emerged on Monday that the court decided to throw out the case due to lack of
evidence even before the start of the trial.
Grigorian’s lawyer, Yervand Varosian, hailed the decision made by a district
court judge, Davit Balayan.
“Justice in Armenia will not be killed,” Varosian wrote on Facebook. “On the
contrary, it will recuperate and consist of competent, courageous and
independent judges.”
“Today Judge Davit Balayan took a very important step in that direction,” said
the lawyer critical of the Armenian government.
The Office of the Prosecutor-General and the SIS did not immediately react to
the development.
Kocharian’s high-profile trial has been presided over by another judge, Anna
Danibekian, since August. Danibekian has repeatedly refused to release him
pending the outcome of the trial.
The ex-president rejects the coup and corruption charges leveled against him as
politically motivated.
Pashinian, Family Recover From Coronavirus
Armenia -- Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian holds a news briefing outside his
official resdience, Yerevan, June 4, 2020.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said on Monday that he and members of his family
have recovered from the coronavirus just over a week after testing positive for
the disease.
Pashinian announced their infection and went into self-isolation on June 1.
Since then he has run the Armenian government from his official residence in
Yerevan where he lives with his wife and three young daughters.
Despite the self-isolation Pashinian held daily news briefings with other
officials outside the residence throughout last week. The officials wore face
masks and stood a couple of meters away from him during the briefings. The prime
minister insisted that neither he nor any other member of his family is showing
any symptoms of COVID-19.
In a Facebook post, Pashinian said that the entire family twice tested negative
for the virus over the weekend. “I am returning to full-fledged work,” he said.
The 45-year-old premier suggested on June 1 that he most probably caught the
virus from a government employee who served him water during a recent government
meeting. He said he believes he might have only infected “as few people in the
government as possible.”
No mass testing of members of Pashinian’s staff and other government officials
was reported in the following days.
The Armenian authorities have recorded 13, 325 coronavirus cases and at least
211 deaths so far. The daily number of new infections has grown steadily and
significantly since the authorities began lifting in mi-April a nationwide
lockdown imposed in late March.
Pashinian Sacks Top Military, Security Officials
Armenia -- Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan meets the newly appointed Police Chief
Arman Sargsian (R) and National Security Service Director Eduard Martirosian,
March 20, 2020.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian sacked on Monday Armenia’s top army general and
the heads of the police and National Security Service (NSS) amid a deepening
coronavirus crisis in the country.
Pashinian gave no reasons for the unexpected shakeup announced on his Facebook
page. He only thanked Lieutenant-General Artak Davtian and national police chief
Arman Sargsian and NSS Director Eduard Martirosian for their work.
Pashinian indicated later in the day that they were dismissed because of
breaching or failing to enforce the coronavirus-related state of emergency in
Armenia.
Sargsian and Martirosian were named to run two law-enforcement bodies on a
permanent basis less than three months ago. They had served as acting heads of
the police and the NSS respectively since September.
Pashinian said that Sargsian will be replaced by another police colonel, Vahe
Ghazarian, while Martirosian’s replacement is his recently appointed deputy,
Argishti Kyaramian.
The 29-year-old Kyaramian headed an anti-corruption government body until last
month. Unlike his predecessor, he has never worked in Armenia’s most powerful
security service before. Kyaramian is widely seen as a political appointee.
The new chief of the Armenian army’s General Staff is Lieutenant-General Onik
Gasparian. He has served as Davtian’s first deputy until now.
Armenia -- General Artak Davtian inspects Armenian troops deployed in Tavush
province.
Pashinian commented on the sackings when he chaired in the evening a meeting of
senior government officials dealing with the coronavirus epidemic. Sargsian and
Martirosian were also present at the meeting.
“It’s high-ranking state officials that must first and foremost demonstrate with
their actions the importance of following anti-epidemic rules,” said Pashinian.
“Unfortunately, we see cases where that does not happen.”
At an ensuing news briefing, Pashinian effectively confirmed that Davtian was
fired because of hosting on Sunday his son’s wedding party despite the state of
emergency. He also seemed to fault the police and NSS chiefs for not preventing
the wedding.
“In crisis situations things get to a point where discipline, order and precise
and unconditional execution of actions stemming from the country leader’s
statements take precedence over all other issues,” he said in that context.
According to “Hraparak” daily, the wedding was attended by about 100 guests in
possible violation of social distancing rules set by the government.
A government task force enforcing the state of emergency pledged in the morning
to look into the wedding’s legality and, if necessary, hold the general’s family
accountable.
“Everyone is equal before the law, and if I committed any violation I will
certainly bear responsibility for that,” Davtian said in a statement issued
shortly before his sacking. “Of course, I believe that there was no violation
but let relevant bodies determine that.”
Davtian was appointed as army chief of staff shortly after the 2018 “Velvet
Revolution” that brought Pashinian to power.
The sackings come as a growing number of opposition figures accuse Pashinian of
mishandling the coronavirus crisis and demand his resignation. The premier’s
political allies dismiss such calls.
More Armenian Hospitals To Treat COVID-19 Patients
Armenia -- A healthcare worker clad in protective gear looks after COVID-19
patients at the Surb Grigor Lusavorich Medical Center, Yerevan, June 5, 2020.
The Armenian authorities scrambled to set up more hospital beds at the weekend
after admitting that the country’s healthcare system has been overwhelmed by the
continuing rapid spread of the coronavirus.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said on Saturday that about 200 people infected
with the virus are “waiting for their turn for hospitalization” because of a
lack of vacant beds at about a dozen Armenian hospitals treating COVID-19
patients.
Pashinian said that one infected person died at home while waiting to be
hospitalized while two others died at hospital due to a shortage of
intensive-care beds.
“Our healthcare system is now so overwhelmed that we are unable to promptly take
to hospital patients subject to hospitalization,” he said in a video address
livestreamed on Facebook.
“We are already walking through hell,” added the premier.
Health Minister Arsen Torosian warned last Thursday that the hospitals coping
with the coronavirus pandemic may soon be unable to admit all infected people in
need of urgent treatment. Torosian had earlier warned of an impending shortage
of beds at the intensive care units of those hospitals.
The authorities are facing growing criticism of their handling of the
coronavirus crisis. Some media outlets and medical experts claim that they could
and should have organized life-saving treatment for a larger number of people
suffering from the grave respiratory disease.
Pashinian announced on Sunday three more hospitals located outside Yerevan will
join the fight against the pandemic “in the coming days.” They will be able to
treat a total of about 240 COVID-19 patients, he said.
There are currently around 2,000 hospital beds available for such patients
across Armenia.
Armenia -- An ambulance races through streets of Yerevan, June 2, 2020.
The total number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the country of about 3
million reached 13,325 on Monday morning after the authorities reported 195 new
infections. The daily figure was sharply down from previous days’ official
statistics because the largest Armenian coronavirus lab was shut down on Sunday
for what the Ministry of Health described as “prophylactic” maintenance.
The ministry said that only 829 COVID-19 tests were performed on Sunday,
compared with some 2,500 tests carried out on Saturday. The number of new cases
reached a fresh daily of 766 as a result of Saturday’s tests.
The ministry also reported 11 more coronavirus deaths on Monday, bringing the
official death toll to 211. The figure does not include the deaths of 72 other
people who were also infected with the coronavirus. The ministry says that those
fatalities were primarily caused by other, preexisting conditions.
The Armenian government issued stay-at-home orders and shut down most
nonessential businesses in late March following the first outbreaks of the
virus. It began easing those restrictions already in mid-April and lifted
virtually all of them by the beginning of May.
The number of COVID-19 infections has increased sharply since then, fuelling
growing calls for a renewed nationwide lockdown. Critics of the government say
that it never properly enforced the March-April lockdown and ended it too soon.
Pashinian again spoke out against restoring a “total lockdown” on Saturday,
saying that it would have “dire economic consequences.” He also claimed that
Armenians would not comply with renewed restrictions on their movements.
The authorities, the prime minister said, will therefore continue to focus
instead on getting more citizens to practice social distancing, wear masks in
all public and enclosed spaces, frequently wash hands and stay away from large
gatherings. Critics are skeptical about the effectiveness of this strategy.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2020 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.