Prosecutor’s Office Disapproves of Charges in Vova Gasparyan’s Case

The Prosecutor General's Office of Armenia has not approved the indictment in the case of former police chief Vladimir Gasparyan, returning it to the Anti-Corruption Committee for further investigation.

This was disclosed to Factinfo by the Prosecutor General’s office.

Factinfo also contacted the Anti-Corruption Committee, which responded that they had received the prosecutor's decision regarding the non-approval of the indictment in the criminal case against Vladimir Gasparyan, and that it had been sent back for additional investigation.

The Anti-Corruption Committee stated, “We assess the prosecutor’s decision as illegal and unfounded. It will be appealed to the higher prosecutor, although we are more than confident that it will yield no results, as we believe that key decisions in such important cases are made at the highest level of the prosecutor’s office, and that the decision not to forward this case to court reflects a unified position of the prosecution.”

It should be noted that earlier, the prosecutor's office also did not approve the criminal case against former Prosecutor General Agvan Hovsepyan, returning it to the Anti-Corruption Committee with the corresponding instructions for further investigation.

Recall that in the context of the criminal case being investigated by the Anti-Corruption Committee, Vladimir Gasparyan is accused under various parts of Article 190, Article 179, Article 34-179, Article 314, Article 315, and Article 308 of the Armenian Criminal Code.

According to the preliminary investigation body, during the years 2000-2018, Gasparyan’s wife and daughter, who held positions in the military police of the Ministry of Defense of Armenia and the police, failed to show up for duty and did not fulfill their obligations.

Moreover, Gasparyan's wife, appointed in the police, improperly executed her official duties for undeserved reasons. Gasparyan, being aware of all this, allegedly abused his official powers by intentionally failing to take legal measures, as a result of which his wife and daughter were unjustly paid a substantial amount exceeding 45 million AMD.

The investigation has also established that Vladimir Gasparyan, during his various state service positions from 2000-2018, besides abusing his official powers, committed official forgery, embezzlement of considerable magnitude, and engaged in other corrupt criminal activities. Consequently, the former police chief acquired property that significantly exceeds his and his family members' legitimate income through criminal means, including expensive houses and vehicles, which he legalized by registering them in the names of associated individuals and other methods to hide their criminal origins. The investigation revealed that Gasparyan legalized (laundered) property obtained through criminal means amounting to a total of 2,116,040,804 AMD.