Family of Gagik Khachatryan Issues Statement Regarding Arrest

The legal team of Gagik Khachatryan, the former head of the Armenian State Revenue Committee, has released a statement claiming that the decision to apply pre-trial detention as a measure against his son, Artyom Khachatryan, co-founder of the "Galaxy" group of companies, was executed in violation of the law.

On June 5, this year, "Haykakan Zhamanak" published an article in which the head of the investigative department of the NSS of Armenia reported that Artyom Khachatryan, who is implicated as a suspect in four articles of the Armenian Criminal Code, has had arrest as a measure applied against him, and a search announcement has been issued.

In their statement, the Khachatryan family’s legal team noted, "We inform you that this process has been carried out in strict secrecy from Artyom Khachatryan and the legal team. Neither before the suspect was involved and the search announcement was issued, nor afterward, were they notified of this, despite the fact that the investigative team was conducting almost daily searches of the Khachatryan family, including the residences of Artyom Khachatryan himself."

The lawyers pointed out that even during the searches, no notification was ever handed to Artyom Khachatryan regarding a summons to the investigative body, which, however, did not prevent the investigative body from issuing a search announcement against him without any grounds.

"We believe that the only reason for conducting these processes with such a degree of secrecy is that the pre-investigation body is well aware of their illegality and lack of basis, and thus deprived the citizen of Armenia, Artyom Khachatryan, and the Khachatryan legal team of the opportunity to participate in these processes, expose the illegalities and speak out about them, as well as defend Artyom Khachatryan's rights," the statement continued.

It is worth noting that Gagik Khachatryan’s eldest son, Gurgen Khachatryan, had informed the public in his statement on April 28 of this year that high-ranking officials in the country had directly and indirectly (including during meetings) pressured him to sell Ucom and the leading Armenian IT company, IUnetworks, with non-advantageous offers.

Later, Gurgen Khachatryan was charged with committing particularly serious crimes. In his statement, he also noted that similar actions would be carried out against his brother, other family members, relatives, friends, as well as other individuals associated with them.

"As we can see, the officials mentioned in Gurgen Khachatryan's statement are 'men of their word,' and one after another, they are turning into reality the 'promises' mentioned in the same statement, which this time have manifested as illegal and unfounded charges of serious and particularly serious crimes against Artyom Khachatryan, applying arrest as a measure against him and issuing a search announcement," the lawyers concluded.

Earlier, it was reported that former Minister of Finance and former head of the SRC, Gagik Khachatryan, along with his sons Gurgen and Artyom Khachatryan, has filed a lawsuit against Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, his spokesperson Mane Gevorgyan, and the Prime Minister's office.