Armenia’s ex-defense minister accused of embezzlement, will remain in custody pending trial
YEREVAN, January 24. /ARKA/. Armenia’s ex-defense minister Davit Tonoyan, accused of embezzlement, will remain in custody pending trial.
On Monday, a first instance court in Yerevan rejected a petition by defense lawyers requesting that Tonoyan and other defendants in the case - former advisor to Defense Minister, head of Mosston Engineering David Galstyan (well-known as Davo Patron), former head of military aviation Avetik Muradyan and former deputy chief of General Staff Stepan Galstyan be released from custody.
A lawyer for Davit Tonoyan Sergey Hovhannisyan told journalists that only Artem Hambaryan (former head of aircraft maintenance service) will be released on a 5 million dram bail (about $10 thousand).
Earlier, Hanrapetutyun Party leader Aram Sargsyan and lawmakers from the pro-governmental Civil Contract parliamentary faction Kristine Poghosyan and Vilen Gabrielyan had applied for Davit Tonoyan's release under their personal guarantees.
Davit Tonoyan and Davit Galstyan, the owner of a company that supplied Armenia’s armed forces with weapons and ammunition, had been detained on September 30, 2021 on charges of embezzling 2.28 billion drams (over $4.7 million). The next day a court allowed their arrest.
Davit Tonoyan had been appointed defense minister after the velvet revolution in 2018 that brought to power Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and held the position until after 2020 year’s war in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
Davit Galstyan was earlier charged with breaching a $1 million contract by providing the defense ministry with ammunition designed for older and different artillery systems and was arrested in February, but was released four months later by Armenia’s Court of Appeals.
Earlier, Armenia’s National Security Service (NSS) had said that Tonoyan and Galstyan were detained as part of a criminal investigation into abuse of office and official forgery committed by high-ranking military personnel.
According to the NSS, criminal proceedings were instituted also against a number of former and current high-ranking army officers on charges of abuse of power and official forgery, which entailed grave material consequences.
On October 2, 2021 Armenian law-enforcers detained also deputy chief of staff of the armed forces Stepan Galstyan.-0-
