Artyom Khachatryan, Second Son of Gagik Khachatryan, Declared Wanted: Statement from Legal Team

The second son of former State Revenue Committee chairman Gagik Khachatryan, Artyom Khachatryan, has been declared wanted. This statement was released by the Khachatryan family's legal team.

The statement notes, "On June 5 of this year, 'Haykakan Zhamanak' published an article in which the head of the NSS investigatory department stated in an interview that Artyom Khachatryan, son of former SRC chairman Gagik Khachatryan and co-founder of the 'Galaxy' companies group, is involved as a suspect under four articles of the RA Criminal Code. A measure of restraint has been applied to him, involving detention, and he has been declared wanted.

We inform you that this process has been conducted in violation of the law, heavily concealed from Artyom Khachatryan and the Khachatryan family's legal team. Neither prior to his involvement as a suspect nor after the declaration of being wanted were they informed of this. This is especially concerning given that members of the investigative group at the NSS have been conducting daily searches in the Khachatryan residences, including Artyom Khachatryan's abode.

Not even once during the searches was any notification delivered to Artyom Khachatryan regarding a summons to the investigative authority, which, however, did not prevent the investigative body from declaring him wanted without any basis.

We believe that the only reason for carrying out these processes under such a veil of secrecy is that the pre-trial body is well aware of their illegality and lack of basis. Thus, they have deprived Armenian citizen Artyom Khachatryan and the Khachatryan legal team of the opportunity to participate in these processes, reveal the illegalities, voice them, and defend Artyom Khachatryan's rights.

Let us remind you that on April 28 of this year, Gagik Khachatryan's elder son, Gurgen Khachatryan, informed the public in his statement that at the level of high-ranking officials, both direct and indirect (including during meetings), a requirement was put forth for him to sell Ucom and the leading Armenian IT company IUnetworks with an unprofitable offer.

Later, Gurgen Khachatryan was accused of committing a particularly serious crime. In his statement, he also noted that similar actions would be taken against his brother, other family members, relatives, close ones, as well as other individuals connected with them.

As we can see, the officials mentioned in Gurgen Khachatryan's statement are "the masters of their word," and they are consecutively turning the "promises" mentioned in that very statement into reality. This time, they have manifested in an illegal and baseless attribution of serious and particularly serious crimes to Artyom Khachatryan, applying detention as a measure of restraint and declaring him wanted."