6 Criminal Cases Involving Officials' Sons in Exemption from Military Service: The Connection of the Aparan Police Chief's Son and Nephew

The head of the Aparan division of the Ararat regional police department, Ashot Hayrapetyan's son and nephew are involved in a criminal case, initiated under Article 327, Part 2 of the Criminal Code concerning the forgery of documents or evasion from mandatory military service by other deceitful means. These individuals have been questioned as witnesses. This was reported by Hetq.am.

Hetq attempted to clarify at which stage these verifications are situated.

Following nearly three months of correspondence with various departments, it became clear that the military prosecutor's office was examining the personal files of 363 conscripts who were exempted from mandatory military service for health reasons or granted deferments, including children of former and current officials.

The Prosecutor General's Office informed us that this data was provided to the police to investigate possible corrupt practices in the decision-making process concerning the health status of these conscripts through operational-investigative measures.

"Based on the data obtained by the police and provided to the military prosecutor's office, six criminal cases have been initiated due to cases of conscripts evading mandatory military service through the simulation of illness or deceit (first and second points of Article 327, Part 2 of the Criminal Code)," stated the response from the Prosecutor General's Office.

It is worth noting that the aforementioned article of the Criminal Code states the following: evasion from the next conscription for mandatory military service, training, or military exercises by forgery or other deceitful means.

We had approached the Ministry of Defense, police, Investigative Committee, and the prosecutor's office to inquire how many citizens, previously exempted from military service, have had the legality of their exemptions checked since the summer conscription of 2018 (after Nikol Pashinyan's appointment as prime minister). We asked how many cases resulted in criminal cases and on what grounds it was decided not to initiate criminal cases in other instances.

The Prosecutor's Office also informed that similar information regarding other conscripts is being discussed, and criminal cases are initiated when the reasons and grounds provided by the Criminal Procedure Code are present.

In response to our inquiry, the Investigative Committee confirmed that there are also six criminal cases involving the evasion of military service by children of former and current high-ranking officials, with seven individuals being investigated, three of whom are involved as defendants. The preliminary investigation for all cases is ongoing.

The Ministry of Defense Attempts to Withhold Information

The Ministry of Defense has been attempting to provide minimal information regarding the verification process. Initially, they stated that summarized information related to criminal cases initiated under Articles 327 and 324 (evasion from conscription, document forgery) could only be provided by the police information center.

It later became clear that there is an internal agreement within the power structures that information regarding military crimes is transmitted to the media only after passing through the relevant secrecy protocols by the Ministry of Defense; in other words, the Ministry decides what is subject to publication and what is not.

This is evidenced by the vague and general response received from the police.

Through our second inquiry sent to the Ministry of Defense, it was possible to clarify that a criminal case had been initiated in the RA's law enforcement regarding the aforementioned articles, and information about the course of the preliminary investigation can be provided by the Investigative Committee.

The Investigative Committee also reported the criminal case regarding the forgery of documents to evade military service by residents of the city of Aparan, A. Hayrapetyan and H. Hayrapetyan. We managed to ascertain that these individuals are the son and nephew of Ashot Hayrapetyan, the head of the Aparan division of the Ararat regional police department.

Recall that during a press conference held on November 20, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan assured that officials exempted from military service would also be included in the checks, adding that there would be no compromises with corruption under any circumstances.

Next, we will attempt to provide further details on other initiated criminal cases and whether any of the Prime Minister's allies or family members are involved in these criminal cases.