Pardon Granted to Vaghan Ghazaryan

The former head of the security service of the third President of Armenia, Serzh Sargsyan, Vaghan Ghazaryan, has been granted a pardon, leading to the termination of proceedings against him. This was reported by lawyer Mher Hakobyan to 'Factinfo'.

As previously reported, new charges were brought against Vaghan Ghazaryan under Part 2 of Article 308 of the RA Criminal Code. According to the preliminary investigation body, Ghazaryan used his official position against the interests of the service based on personal interest to benefit his family. Specifically, he allegedly offered driver S.A. from the National Security Service’s state protection division a salary from state funds while having him work as his wife’s personal driver.

Furthermore, according to the NSS, S.A. provided driving services for Ghazaryan's wife from 2015 to 2018, thereby failing to perform any official duties during this period within the NSS state protection division. Despite this, a substantial amount (€9,340,677 AMD) was paid to S.A. as salary, bonuses, and allowances from state protection funds, which Ghazaryan has fully reimbursed.

It should be noted that although the money has been returned, Ghazaryan does not accept the charges, claiming he paid only to be 'left in peace'. The act attributed to him is now subject to pardon, and Ghazaryan did not object to the application of the pardon and the cessation of criminal prosecution. However, the investigator treated this as a motion and postponed the resolution, without clarifying the circumstances that necessitated the delay.

The lawyer had filed a complaint regarding the postponement of the discussion on the termination of criminal prosecution based on the pardon for Ghazaryan, which was granted by judge Vahe Misakyan of the Yerevan General Jurisdiction Court at the beginning of the year. Following this court decision, the prosecuting authority was obliged to decide on the cessation of criminal prosecution based on the pardon.