Significant Details About Serzh Sargsyan's Brother's Case

Serzh Sargsyan's brother, Lyova Sargsyan, has filed a lawsuit against the Ethics Commission of High-Ranking Officials of Armenia.

The newspaper "Zhoghovurd" has learned that this case will be examined by Ani Harutyunyan, the daughter of Serzh Sargsyan's close friend Grisha Harutyunyan, who is a judge at the Administrative Court of Armenia. On May 8, Lyova Sargsyan approached the court demanding that the commission invalidate its decision made on April 9, 2019.

The Ethics Commission of High-Ranking Officials imposed an administrative penalty of "warning" against Lyova Sargsyan, a former special envoy and brother of the second president of Armenia, Serzh Sargsyan. Based on the analysis of electronic registry data of declarations, the commission determined that the property, income, and asset declarations of Lyova Sargsyan as of the date of termination of his official duties in 2018 were not included in the submitted and published declarations, hence he should face administrative liability. However, there is another intriguing circumstance in this case: It is noteworthy that Ani Harutyunyan will be reviewing L. Sargsyan's lawsuit.

This judge is not an ordinary person. Ani Harutyunyan and Serzh Sargsyan's families are connected by ties of friendship. The father of judge Ani Harutyunyan is Grisha Harutyunyan, the former deputy director of the National Security Service of Armenia. G. Harutyunyan began working in state bodies of Armenia in the early 1990s when he was appointed head of the special programs department. However, shortly after, abuses were discovered in his department, and there were suspicions that Grisha Harutyunyan was also involved, which led to his dismissal.

After that, Grisha Harutyunyan disappeared from public view for a long time until 1994 when Serzh Sargsyan was appointed Minister of Defense of Armenia. During Sargsyan's tenure, Grisha Harutyunyan was appointed Deputy Minister of Defense. He was in charge of the economic issues of the army, but he was later also dismissed due to misconduct. Years later, again through Serzh Sargsyan's intercession, he returned and held no less a position than Deputy Minister of National Security. Moreover, it is well-known that Grisha and Mikael Harutyunyans are the uncles of former head of the State Revenue Committee, Mihran Poghosyan, while Ani Harutyunyan is the daughter of his uncle.