Arsen Torosyan Testifies Against Davit Sanasaryan

Factor.am has received information regarding the current proceedings of the pre-investigation of the criminal case initiated against employees of the State Audit Office. According to our source close to the law enforcement system, at least three individuals have testified against former head of the State Audit Office, Davit Sanasaryan, two of whom are employees of the agency and the third is a member of the government.

The media reports that one of the individuals testifying against Sanasaryan is Gevorg Khachatryan, who has been charged under the second part of Article 308 of the RA Criminal Code for abuse of office that has caused grave consequences. Khachatryan held a key position within the State Audit Office as the chief specialist of the Department for Oversight of Procurement Processes. He was released by the NSS on April 4, specifically, following a decision by the prosecutor supervising the case, where Khachatryan's detention was replaced with a signature not to leave.

According to the media, after his release, Gevorg Khachatryan changed his phone number and residential address, and he also sent his resignation by mail. Notably, our information indicates that he previously worked at the Ministry of Defense but was dismissed due to certain shortcomings in the procurement process, and a service inquiry had been initiated regarding that issue.

To verify the authenticity of this information, Factor.am submitted an official inquiry to the Ministry of Defense last week, but they requested thirty days to respond.

According to our source close to law enforcement, Davit Sanasaryan and Arsen Torosyan were confronted during the investigation, and during that confrontation, Torosyan insisted that Sanasaryan had informed him that he was aware of the actions of the State Audit Office employees.

However, Davit Sanasaryan presented evidence to contradict Torosyan’s assertion to the pre-investigation body. This evidence involves personal correspondence on Facebook between Sanasaryan and Torosyan, in which Sanasaryan stated the exact opposite. During a press conference held on April 30, Davit Sanasaryan’s lawyer, Arsen Sargsyan, while being cautious not to disclose any pre-investigative secret, mentioned that they presented certain objective information showing Sanasaryan’s honesty and integrity to the investigating authority.

“He writes about these circumstances in a conversation with a very close person at a time when there was no criminal case,” the lawyer noted in a conversation with the media. Moreover, immediately after this information was presented to the pre-investigation body, Sanasaryan was charged on the same day.

Davit Sanasaryan refrained from commenting during the press conference regarding Arsen Torosyan’s involvement in the case. When asked about Torosyan's position on this matter, Sanasaryan gave a vague response: “We cannot say anything at this moment. If I say he has expressed an opinion, we already enter that field (of pre-investigative secrecy), if I say he has not, we are again in that field.”