Final Charges Filed Against Former Head of Serge Sargsyan's Bodyguard

Final charges have been filed in one of the cases against the former head of Serge Sargsyan's bodyguard service, Vachagan Ghazaryan, and a decision has been made. This was reported by the newspaper 'Zhoghovurd'.

“Yesterday, while tens of thousands of people were demanding Nikol Pashinyan’s resignation in Republic Square, law enforcement was making decisions regarding well-known criminal cases. The Committee announced yesterday that the investigation into the embezzlement of state property worth 1 billion 650 million drams through criminal schemes related to the adjacent lands of Yerevan’s Yerablur has been completed against a former official of the Police of the Republic of Armenia (RA).”

The investigation revealed that an individual who previously held the position of head of a department at the RA Police and then became the first deputy chief of the RA Police, knowingly intending to acquire land areas of 4.005 hectares and 0.228 hectares, along with a building of 161.9 square meters, sought to purchase them at a price significantly lower than their market value. To achieve this, he reportedly used his close relationships with relevant officials of the RA Ministry of Defense to convince and otherwise induce them to misuse their official positions in violation of Article 66 of the RA Land Code, resulting in the sale of the aforementioned land to him.

For the actions committed, the former official of the RA Police has been formally charged under parts 1 and 3 of the third section of Article 190 and Article 38-308, part 2 of the former Criminal Code of Armenia (two episodes). The damages caused to the state have been restored. This means that although Vachagan Ghazaryan returned the Yerablur territories to the state, the criminal case remains suspended over him and has been sent to court.

By officially disseminating such information, Nikol Pashinyan’s government is attempting to shape public perception that the looting is being returned, but in reality, this process has long been a failure,” the newspaper reports.