Investigators Currently Conducting Search at Arshak Hakobyan's Home, Defense Attorney

It has just been reported that Arshak Hakobyan, head of the security detail for Vladimir Gasparyan, has been charged. According to the Anti-Corruption Committee, during the investigation of a criminal case involving the concealment of the declaration of assets and income of particularly large amounts, sufficient evidence has been gathered. This evidence substantiates that Arshak Hakobyan, as of July 1, 2017, while holding the position of head of a relevant unit of the Police of the Republic of Armenia and being a declared public official, intentionally concealed declaration-related information in the declarations submitted to the Commission on Ethics of High-Ranking Officials. This led to the non-declaration of particularly large assets, as well as the legalization of particularly large assets obtained through criminal means totaling 22,007,259 Armenian Drams.

In an interview with ArmDaily.am, Hakobyan's defense attorney, Tigran Atanesyan, said that he cannot provide details about the charges because he is restricted by the secrecy of the pre-investigation. “In my statement, I have also used the term ‘underhanded’ because they can disrupt everything now. I cannot respond because I am limited by some pre-investigation secrecy. But I can confidently say that the charges we presented have simply been nullified. Nikol's loyal servant Sasun Khachatryan decided to show off. It is also very interesting that this media assault started about an hour ago, although the events date back to yesterday,” said Atanesyan.

He assured that the charges are ridiculous, and the committee's investigators are currently conducting a search at Arshak Hakobyan's home. “They found three rings belonging to his wife,” said Atanesyan. He informed that the hearing on the issue of arrest began yesterday and will continue today at 3:30 PM.