Former President Serzh Sargsyan Charged with Corruption, Rejects “False” Claims

By Emilio Luciano Cricchio  Former Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan has been charged with embezzling state funds. If the case goes to trial, this will make Sargsyan the second former Armenian President after Robert Kocharyan to be arrested in the span of one year. Sargsyan resigned in the midst of the 2018 Armenian Revolution after he was elected to the office of Prime Minister, giving him a third consecutive term after serving two terms as president. Armenia’s Special Investigation Service (SIS) made the announcement on Wednesday, accusing the former President of embezzling funds in 2013 that were meant for fuel subsidies to help low income farmers. The SIS alleges that Sargsyan ensured that Flash, a company which imports fuel into Armenia, won a government contract to supply fuel for the purpose of this subsidy. Flash is furthermore owned by Barsegh Beglaryan, a business tycoon who has close ties to Sargsyan. The SIS statement continued that there was a cheaper option available of which Sargsyan was aware. Another company called Maxhur was vying for the contract and was ready to supply the same amount of fuel for a lesser price. This would have allowed the government to save 1 million USD (489 million AMD), instead the government awarded the contract to Flash for around 3.8 million USD (1.8 billion AMD). According to the SIS statement, this allowed government officials to embezzle around 1 million USD. Though Sargsyan has not been arrested as of yet, the SIS has issued a travel ban, barring Sargsyan from leaving Armenia now that he is under investigation. The Republican Party of Armenia, of which Sargsyan is a leader, released a statement calling the indictment “phony and nonsensical,” and declared the move to be a “flagrant manifestation of political persecution.” The statement went on to warn against the dangers posed by the government’s moves and the consequences they will have for Nagorno-Karabakh, and Armenia’s security interests. Sargsyan removed himself from the limelight since the 2018 Velvet Revolution but stated to journalists in October that he was not afraid of being arrested. At November’s European People’s Party Summit, in Zagreb, Sargsyan derided the current Armenian Government and stated, “there are dangerous developments jeopardizing democracy in the country. Constitutional foundations have been undermined. The principle of the separation and equilibrium of powers has failed.  There are numerous facts of manifest violation of the independence of the judiciary. Political persecution is underway.” Armenian news website, 168.am reported that the office of Sargsyan responded that the former President “did not plead guilty” to the “false” accusations, and considered the move a “political persecution.” Sargsyan’s relatives however have already been sought after by Armenian authorities. Sargsyan’s brother, Alexander Sargsyan, a prominent business magnate, was arrested by the National Security Service but released on bail. His other brother, Levon Sargsyan, has two warrants for his arrest and has fled the country. Narek Sargsyan, Serzh Sargsyan's nephew, was arrested in Prague for possessing a fake passport and is wanted in Armenia, where he faces charges of illegal possession of firearms and drug trafficking. On top of that, the former President’s son-in-law, Mikael Minasyan, has fled the country and is under investigation. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has made combating corruption a central policy of his administration. He stated in November, “Corruption and the criminal subculture must be extirpated. If there are people, including politicians and parliamentarians who think there are going to be compromises in this regard (...) I tell them that we will lay them on the asphalt. They should make my words, and if they don’t, you will see what will happen.”