Seiran Ohanyan to Testify in David Tonoyan Case

The former Minister of Defense, David Tonoyan, will remain in custody. The Anti-Corruption Court, chaired by Judge Vahe Dolmazyan, has rejected the defense's request to change the bail conditions for Tonoyan. This information was provided to 'Factinfo' by lawyer Sergey Hovhannisyan.

It is noteworthy that the case involving former Minister of Defense David Tonoyan, former Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces Artak Davtyan, his former deputy Stepan Galstyan, and others is currently undergoing court examination in the evidence review phase, where the examination of written evidence has already been completed. Defense attorney Sergey Hovhannisyan stated that they submitted a motion to the court for bail based on the fact that the written evidence had been reviewed and the likelihood of obstructing the investigation had significantly decreased, offering Tonoyan's apartment, valued at 35 million AMD, as collateral. The defense reports that the apartment was a gift received from the Ministry of Defense, however, the court denied the bail request, citing that Tonoyan, remaining at large, could influence witnesses in the case.

Moreover, the next court session is expected to include witness questioning, with Seiran Ohanyan also on the witness list.

It should be recalled that a criminal case was initiated in the investigation department of the National Security Service related to alleged abuses in the procurement process of military ammunition, specifically concerning the purchase of defective and unusable missiles. Seven individuals have been charged in the context of this criminal case, including former Minister David Tonoyan, Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces Artak Davtyan, former Deputy Chief of Staff Stepan Galstyan, and businessman David Galstyan, known by the nickname 'Patron Davo', who is involved in arms supplies.

According to preliminary investigation data, senior officials of the Armed Forces and from the Ministry of Defense, abusing their official positions, conspired with the owner of 'Moston Engineering', to cover the obligation of the Ministry of Defense arising from the privatization of 'Neutron GAM' and 'Bagavain' LLC, and in 2018, accepted and acquired 4,232 units of previously unsold and stored military ammunition that did not meet technical requirements.

The investigative body claims that these individuals tailored the technical specifications forming part of the agreement to match the actual type of products handed over to the Ministry of Defense, stating the delivery of military ammunition in factory boxes to the storage unit of military unit N of the Ministry of Defense.

Moreover, the mentioned military ammunition was acquired at nearly twice the price of previous purchases from the same batch, leading to an embezzlement amounting to a particularly large scale of 2,277,323,840 AMD, which is equivalent to 4,655,200 USD.

David Tonoyan has been charged under point 1 of part 3 of Article 179 of the Criminal Code of Armenia, Artak Davtyan under part 3 of Article 375, Stepan Galstyan under part 3 of Article 375 and part 1 of Article 314, Avetik Muradyan under part 3 of Article 375 and part 1 of Article 314, Vladimir Babayan under part 3 of Article 375 and part 1 of Article 314, Artem Hambaryan under part 3 of Article 375 and part 1 of Article 314, and David Galstyan under part 1 of part 3 of Article 178 and part 1 of Article 325 of the Criminal Code.