MOB BAYS FOR ARMENIAN’S BLOOD AS IDENTITY RIDDLE DEEPENS
Standard, Kenya
March 16 2006
With a mob in Nairobi streets baying for his blood and the Armenian
government discrediting his passport, Mr Artur Margaryan was a man
under siege, even as he walked into the Standard Group offices to
deny claims linking him to mercenary activities.
Matters are complicated by the fact that information at the Ministry
of Immigration indicates he is a citizen of India and his compatriot,
Mr Artur Sargsyan, an Armenian.
Irate women scream at Artur Margaryan along Kenyatta Avenue soon
after he left the Standard Group offices at I&M Bank Tower on Thursday
afternoon.
And State House entered the fray with a statement on the name of
Narc activist Mary Wambui’s daughter, who has been listed as a
co-shareholder in a company with Margaryan and Sargsyan.
The statement, released by the Presidential Press Service, said:
“Our attention has been drawn to a story appearing on the front
page of The Standard, making reference to a company involving Ms
Winfred Wangui Mwai, whose picture also appears. We hereby wish to
state that the full names of the said Winfred are Winfred Florence
Wangui, as appearing in her National Identity Card, and the name
Mwai appears nowhere in the national registry. Kindly correct the
erroneous impression created through the use of the name Mwai.”
Confronted by angry mob
The statement was in reaction to our lead story on Thursday, where
we reproduced the names as they appear in the company’s memorandum
of understanding. The story made no reference to State House.
The PPS statement also refuted claims that some State House cars had
been seen in the vicinity of Runda, near the house rented by the two.
The Orange Democratic Movement had released a statement giving a list
of vehicles linked to the two foreigners. The movement also asked
President Kibaki to say what he knew about the intriguing saga.
Margaryan was on Thursday rescued by police from an angry mob that
confronted him in the streets soon after he left the Standard premises.
The mob shouted insults at him and followed him through the streets
as he frantically spoke on his mobile phone. Armed police repulsed
the crowd and whisked him away in a taxi.
The nationalities of the two foreigners is now in doubt after the
director of Consular Department at the Armenia Ministry of Foreign
Affairs Tigran Seiranian, said the passport number AB0322223 held by
Artur Margaryan was not in their records.
In response to our inquiries by email, Seiranian also dismissed as
false claims by the two foreigners that they were related to the
country’s president and that one of them was a presidential hopeful
in the 2008 elections.
Credibility in doubt
Artur Sargsyan claimed on Monday that he was a presidential candidate
and was related to the Armenian President Robert Kocharian. But his
name does not appear in a list of the 2008 presidential contestants
posted on the Armenian HyeForum message board website.
This latest information on the unfolding saga came as the Government
gave its first indication that it was now doubting the credibility
and nationalities of the two foreigners.
National Security minister John Michuki said he could not tell whether
the individuals mentioned were businessmen or hit men. And asked about
their nationality, he said: “Going by what you have been writing,
they could be Russians, Armenians, Americans. We will ascertain who
they are.”
He added that the Government was now investigating the two foreigners,
who came out in public for the first time on Monday to deny reports
that they were mercenaries.
The claims were first made by Langata MP Raila Odinga, who said the
foreigners were involved in the Government raid on the Standard Group
premises in the city centre and Industrial Area.
But the two men turned up to claim they had lent Raila Sh108 million
to sort out a personal problem. They also claimed Raila and Mwingi
North MP Kalonzo Musyoka had asked for Sh3 billion to finance a
no-confidence vote in the Government. Both leaders have asked the
two men to prove their claims.
Vilified for political reasons
Margaryan strolled into the Standard/KTN offices on Thursday to restate
his claims that he was an honest businessman, who was being vilified
for political reasons.
The man, who said his visit was intended “to bury the story of the
mercenary once for all”, further denied having ever been to State
House or sharing business interests with a prominent Narc activist
or a member of her family.
“I don’t know the location (of State House). I’ve not been there,”
Margaryan told journalists at a Press conference. And shown the
picture of Winifred Wangui, with whom records at the Registrar of
Companies indicate he co-shares Kensington Holding Ltd, he said she
looked like an “African lady I don’t know.”
Asked about claims that he trafficked drugs, Margaryan said he was
“very religious” and abhorred the substances, and that he had set up
an anti-drug movement in Dubai.
With a touch of swashbuckling, amplified by a bullet-proof vest he
claimed was a “medical jacket” prescribed by doctors for injuries he
had sustained in an accident, Margaryan said he felt no remorse for
the attack of a police officer in his compound last week.
He had imported more dogs just in case the police dared to raid his
house again, he warned. “I had one dog, but now I’ve six from Dubai.
If you jump into my compound, I will unleash them on you. I don’t
care if it is the CID officer or the Commissioner himself.”
Ostentatious lifestyle
He further dared the police to arrest him for concealing number
plates of “his cars” – he claimed to have three Lexus, “but I could
have six by evening if I want” -arguing that he was forced to do so
for security reasons.
Unknown people had trailed him, he claimed, although he could not
explain the irony of demanding police protection from the same force
he had chased away from his house recently.
Margaryan said he and the second man he claims is his brother had
sunk around Sh360 million into the upgrading of a slum.
Showing off expensive jewellery and at least five mobile phones that
kept ringing throughout the hour-long interview, Margaryan repeated
the claim that he had loaned Raila Sh108 million.
Asked to show evidence of the loan, he said he had not bothered to
tie the “loan” in paperwork “as he believed life was like a menu,
that you only asked for what you planned to pay for.”
He then said he had given the recording cameras used during the
transaction to a hotel manager. He claimed to have personally installed
the CCTV cameras at the Grand Regency hotel Penthouse suite from where
he said he handed over the money stashed in a “Nakumatt paper bag”.
Margaryan, however, left more questions than answers after he slyly
deflected inquiries on his apparent well-heeled and ostentatious
lifestyle.
For instance, although he insisted the upgrading process that sounded
more of charity work than investment had the full blessings of the
Government, he insisted he was yet to meet any high-ranking state
official over it.
He and his investing colleagues planned to buy land at a location he
did not wish to name as they planned “to sell the houses in peace.”
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress