Armenian lawmakers discussed prosecutor general’s petitions requesting permission to prosecute two opposition MPs
YEREVAN, February 8. /ARKA/. By a vote of 64 Armenia's parliament agreed to consider a request by Prosecutor General Anna Vardapetyan to lift opposition MP Seyran Ohanyan’s immunity and prosecute former defense minister, who is now head of the opposition Hayastan parliamentary faction.
Prosecutor General said Ohanyan, who served as defense minister in 2008-2016, is charged with three counts of embezzlement on a large scale and abuse of official duties.
One of the counts is considered classified. According to another count, under a contract concluded by the defense ministry with Knights Bridge Communications AM CJSC, members of a criminal group were able to mortgage an army-owned property and embezzle part of the money (about 1.84 billion drams).
Prosecutor General Anna Vardapetyan submitted also another petition to the parliament for opening a criminal case against an MP from the opposition Hayastan faction Armen Charchyan, who is accused of giving a false medical report regarding the health condition of Arthur Sargsyan, who died in 2017 and is better known to the public as a "food delivery man.’
Sargsyan had been diagnosed with Bekhterev's disease in 1988 and in 2017 a medical commission at the Izmirlian Medical Center, of which Charchyan was the executive director at the time, was supposed to determine his medical condition. However, Sargsyan refused to undergo an examination and did not show up at the medical center.
As a result, a medical report on his state of health was drawn up without examining him directly, based only on the information available on his health and with disregard for legal norms.
After Sargsyan’s death on March 16, 2017, forensic experts found that the deceased had a progressive form of Bekhterev disease with serious disorders of the musculoskeletal system and internal organ damage.
In July 2016, Artur Sargsyan broke through the police cordon in his own car, loaded with food, and entered the territory of the Yerevan Police Patrol Service Regiment, held by the armed Sasna Tsrer group.
The opposition calls the prosecutor's petitions political persecution. The prosecutor's office will be able to charge Ohanyan and Charchyan if at least 54 MPs take part in the vote and 28 of them vote for. The ruling Civil Contract party controls 71 seats in the National Assembly.-0-
