Urgent: Vladimir Gasparyan Charged

In the Main Investigation Department of the Investigative Committee of Armenia, significant details have come to light regarding a criminal case involving the abuse of official powers by certain officials of the Ministry of Defense of Armenia. Vladimir Gasparyan has been charged.

According to the press service of the Investigative Committee, based on the data obtained during the investigation, Vladimir Sergey Gasparyan, serving as the head of the Military Police of the Ministry of Defense from June 1997 to October 2010 and later as Deputy Minister of Defense until November 2011, was aware that three servicemen from the defense ministry, enlisted as military police in 2001, 2004, and 2009, did not report for military service since their appointment and instead performed other jobs. One of them worked as the driver for Lyova Sargsyan, the brother of Armenia's third president Serzh Sargsyan, while the other two served as bodyguards for Alexander Sargsyan. Acting from personal and group interests, and in order to gain favorable treatment from these individuals, Gasparyan abused his official powers by allowing the mentioned servicemen to perform tasks unrelated to their official status.

Moreover, Gasparyan instructed a subordinate serviceman not to take appropriate legal measures regarding these circumstances. In addition, on December 3, 2010, while holding the position of Deputy Minister of Defense, he extended the military service terms of one of the mentioned servicemen for five more years.

As a result, during his tenure at the Ministry of Defense, these servicemen did not perform their primary duties and were not dismissed from their positions, leading to an unjustified payment totaling 21,691,481 Armenian drams from the state budget, causing considerable damage to the state.

With a sufficient combination of evidence gathered, Vladimir Gasparyan has been charged under the second part of Article 375 of the Criminal Code of Armenia. A preventive measure of a signature not to leave has been chosen for him.

Considering that Gasparyan is also accused of committing a criminal act involving the misuse of his official position as Deputy Minister of Defense, the criminal case is expected to be sent to the Office of the Prosecutor General of Armenia for discussion on assigning the case to the Special Investigation Service for further investigation. The preliminary investigation continues.