Bulki Aram, Accused of Taking $14 Million Bribe, Is Not in Armenia

The newspaper 'Hraparak' reports: 'Aram Harutyunyan, a current MP and former Minister of Environment, who is accused of taking a $14 million bribe, is reportedly not in Armenia. Attempts to reach him personally were unsuccessful as his phone was switched off and the subscriber was unreachable.

It should be noted that businessman Silva Hambartsumyan has also claimed that he paid a bribe of $14 million to obtain a mining exploration license. The last extraordinary session of the 6th convocation of the National Assembly was specifically related to him; the agenda included the issue of granting consent to initiate criminal proceedings against him and to deprive him of his liberty, but there was no quorum in the last four-day session.

According to the Constitution, he has parliamentary immunity, which prevents him from being arrested. He could not be detained even after December 9, as long as the 6th convocation of the National Assembly is in operation; in other words, Aram Harutyunyan is still an MP and his powers have not been terminated. However, his movements, especially crossing borders could have been hindered, given that this investigation had been ongoing for a long time and it was well known that he would face charges.

Whether Aram Harutyunyan has crossed the Armenian border remains unclear; our attempts to clarify this with the National Security Service were also unsuccessful. Regarding the Special Investigative Service, spokesperson Marina Ohanyan, when asked whether he had his passport taken away like the case of former President Robert Kocharian, and whether it is possible that he has left Armenia, stated: 'At this moment, we cannot provide further details due to the interests of the pre-trial investigation.' However, we were not asking for details of the investigation but rather whether he is in Armenia or not.

It is also worth mentioning that a day before the session of the National Assembly, the Office of the Prosecutor General issued a statement expressing serious doubts that Harutyunyan was hiding from justice, as investigators have been unable to contact him. Therefore, the Prosecutor's Office considered it urgent to begin the process of depriving him of parliamentary immunity. As we recall, about a month ago, Silva Hambartsumyan detailed that the requested amount was transferred in portions through a certain Suren Avagyan and added that transfers were also made to an account of a citizen named Araks Dilyan, who then transferred the money to accounts of three Armenian citizens in Dubai.

These Armenian citizens are Gagik Karapetyan, the director of the Sevan Psychiatric Hospital, Aram Harutyunyan’s former subordinate, his trainee Viktor Martirosyan, and a third person named Armen Khachatryan. A few days ago, Aram Harutyunyan's colleagues Armen Khachatryan and Viktor Martirosyan were arrested. As for Suren Avagyan, he has been 'on the run' for a long time. According to the source, it is not coincidental that Viktor Martirosyan is in custody, while Armen Khachatryan is no longer under arrest, as he has provided active testimony against Aram Harutyunyan and was released in exchange,' the newspaper writes.

Read the full article in today's issue of the newspaper.