National Security Service Employees Extorted Bribes Amounting to Tens of Thousands of Dollars

The National Security Service (NSS) of Armenia has revealed that employees of the NSS engaged in the extortion of bribes amounting to particularly large sums and abused their official powers. Sufficient evidence has been gathered in the criminal case being investigated by the Special Investigation Service (SIS) of Armenia, confirming that NSS officials, having reached a preliminary agreement regarding the receipt of bribes, extorted and received particularly large sums from a citizen of the Republic of India. They also caused significant harm to the rights of individuals and the legal interests of the state by acting beyond their powers.

According to the charges presented, Edik Apoyan, serving as the head of a department in the NSS City Administration of Yerevan, had prior knowledge of the issues faced by Indian citizen Sandeep Kaushik with law enforcement agencies in his home country. He reached a preliminary agreement with operational officer Gevorg Gabrielyan of the same department regarding the extortion of particularly large bribes from S. Kaushik.

For this purpose, on July 24, 2019, G. Gabrielyan visited S. Kaushik’s residence, where, exceeding his powers, he conducted illegal actions. Without the presence of the appropriate procedure and without recording, he searched S. Kaushik’s belongings and documents and informed him that he had received a notice from the law enforcement agencies in India about his deportation from Armenia, then demanded that in exchange for not deporting him, S. Kaushik hand over all the money available at that moment, after which he personally received $5,000, equivalent to 2,379,750 AMD.

Subsequently, G. Gabrielyan accompanied S. Kaushik and two other Indian citizens present in the apartment to the administrative building of the NSS City Administration of Yerevan, where, in the office of department head Edik Apoyan, they extorted $50,000 in bribes from him under the threat of violating S. Kaushik's rights and legally protected interests, not deporting him from Armenia, not creating false evidence regarding his involvement in illegal drug trafficking, and not subjecting him to criminal responsibility. They received $17,700, equivalent to 8,423,564 AMD.

Specifically, having obtained S. Kaushik's consent, G. Gabrielyan personally received $7,900, equivalent to 3,759,926 AMD, from him the next day, demanding payment of the remaining part of the bribe. G. Gabrielyan’s friend, Gor Martirosyan, learned that a part of the bribe, amounting to $4,800, equivalent to 2,283,888 AMD, was with another citizen of India. On July 31, 2019, he visited that individual and personally received the demanded amount.

Charges have been filed against Edik Apoyan and Gevorg Gabrielyan under paragraph 1 of Article 309 and paragraph 4, point 2 of Article 311 of the Criminal Code of Armenia, while Gor Martirosyan has been charged for assisting them under paragraph 1 of Article 38-309 and paragraph 4, point 2 of Article 38-311 of the Criminal Code of Armenia. The pre-trial investigation of the criminal case has been completed. The case has been sent to the supervising prosecutor with a request to forward it to the court.