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Armenia’s prosecutor general seeks parliament permission to prosecute former foreign minister
YEREVAN, September 27. /ARKA /. Armenia’s prosecutor general, Aghvan Hovsepian, has asked formally the National Assembly of Armenia to allow prosecution of former foreign minister Vartan Oskanian, a spokeswoman for the prosecutor’s office, Sona Truzian, told ARKA.
According to her, the prosecutor’s office wants Oskanian as a defendant. She said the petition does not seek the detention of Oskanian who is a parliament member from the Prosperous Armenia Party.
Earlier, the National Security Service of Armenia opened a criminal investigation into the legalization of illegally obtained money by Oskanian’s Civilitas think-tank", founded in 2008. The case stems from a nearly $2 million donation which Civilitas received from two U.S. companies last year.
The sum was transferred from proceeds from the sale of their Armenian subsidiary, Huntsman Building Products. The NSS claims that Civilitas failed to declare the donation to tax authorities. Oskanian strongly denies that and says the case is politically motivated.
Oskanian served as foreign minister in 1998-2008. He resigned as chairman of Civilitas’s governing board earlier this year shortly after joining the Prosperous Armenia Party to run for the May 6 parliamentary elections... -0-
21:26 27.09.2012
