Why has a false charge of money-laundering been ‘sewn’ on Armen Ashotyan?

On the night of November 16, Vice-President of the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) Armen Ashotyan was not permitted to exit the country at the border checkpoint. At the airport, it became clear that the exit of Vice-President of the RPA Armen Ashotyan from Armenia is blocked in the Border Electronic Management Information System (BEMIS) of the Republic of Armenia.

That same night, on his Facebook page, Armen Ashotyan told about what had happened at the airport. “As I informed today, I must leave for Lisbon to attend the Political Assembly of the European People’s Party. However, when my passport was being checked at Zvartnots Airport, I was prohibited from exiting Armenia on an absurd ground — I was allegedly an accused under some case. What is even more absurd is that I have not been charged under any case until this moment,” he wrote.

In an interview with 168.am on the morning of November 16, Armen Ashotyan’s attorney Tigran Atanesyan  said the following in regard to the situation: “We have no information about this. The investigator said there is a decision on some charge, but we have not received that decision.”

The response of the European People’s Party (EPP) did not come late — Secretary General of the EPP Thanasis Bakolas strictly condemned the Government of the Republic of Armenia with regard to the incident that had happened to Armen Ashotyan.

Yesterday morning, 168.am also contacted the Office of the Human Rights Defender to understand whether the Office of the Ombudsman has taken any action with regard to blockage of Armen Ashotyan’s exit from the country when Ashotyan claims that no charge has been brought against him until this moment.

“We sent letters to the Investigative Committee, the Prosecutor General’s Office and the National Security Service with the request for clarification regarding the lawfulness of restriction on exit from the Republic of Armenia because what is prima facie troubling is the fact that a person’s movement has been restricted without a decision on engaging the person as accused,” the Office of the Human Rights Defender ?

We had also been sending written and verbal inquiries to the Prosecutor General’s Office yesterday morning with regard to the substance of the charge brought against Armen Ashotyan, if there is such. As expected, we did not receive any response until the end of the day, even though it was promised that there would be a reply. In other words, it should be stated that no charge was brought against Armen Ashotyan at the moment when he was being prohibited from leaving the country.

Yesterday afternoon, Armen Ashotyan held an urgent press conference during which he mentioned that he is not an accused under any case and he is not notified that he is an accused, there is also no measure of restraint chosen for him, and so, there is also no ban on his exit.

“I am certain that they are drawing up a charge and setting a date from the past because there was no charge presented at the airport. In all cases, even the charge with a date from the past will not do away with the issue of unlawful application of measure of restraint,” Armen Ashotyan said.

Nevertheless, yesterday, later, Armen Ashotyan was summoned to the General Department for Particularly Important Cases of the Investigative Committee for a charge to be brought against him.

About an hour after Armen Ashotyan exited the building of the Investigative Committee, it became clear that a charge had been brought against him within the scope of a case linked to the Medical University.

“The charge against Mr. Ashotyan was brought under rather surprising articles of the Criminal Code — abuse of official position that entailed grave consequences, part 2 of Article 308 of the former Criminal Code, and, believe it or not, the most beloved article of these [authorities] — money-laundering…I cannot comment on something that has nothing to do with criminal science. The case is linked to the acquisition of immovable property on the part of Yerevan State Medical University,” Armen Ashotyan’s attorney Tigran Atanesyan  reporters, adding that the investigator chose the ban on exit from the country as a measure of restraint for Armen Ashotyan.

After a while, the Vice-President of the RPA summed up the events and gave legal and political evaluations of the charge.

“One might get the impression that we are very content with the way things turned out. Yes, I understand that many of you were thinking that they were going to arrest and detain me, and many of you were happy to see that I came out of the door through which I had entered, and, at first sight, one gets the impression that it is so good that things turned out this way. No, it is not good since they will not intimidate me with arrest and detention,” Ashotyan said.

According to him, the following is the first reason why he was not arrested: Nikol Pashinyan is mentally and politically not ready for that.

“The second reason is that there was a very rapid response from the European political community. On his Twitter blog, the Secretary of the largest ruling party in Europe responded and posted a note in which he strictly condemned the practice of these authorities, that is, the decision to not let me leave to attend the assembly of the largest political family in Europe, and this became a certain restraining mechanism for this junta so that they are more precautious,” the Vice-President of the RPA said.

It is not that I am glad and happy that the ban on exit from the country was chosen as a measure of restraint for me because in my political career, advocating for the people of my country and Artsakh abroad is my alpha and omega, my main credo, and, of course, depriving me of such opportunities abroad, restricting them, turning me into a beggar of the BEMIS so that every time I have tosubmit a request for some investigator to permit or not permit my exit from the country, will be a major hindrance to my political activities abroad,” Armen Ashotyan said.

According to him, the fact that ridiculous charges were brought against him one after another, is a matter of discussion.

“Well, the fact that they had to ascribe abuse of official position to former officials is self-explanatory. The person is a former official, that article is ascribed 99%, regardless of whether there is abuse of official position or not. In my case, there is no abuse of official position as well because the function that I performed as Chairperson of the Board of Trustees is not a state position that I can abuse and be charged under this article,” the Vice-President of the RPA stated.

Armen Ashotyan reminded that he has not been minister since 2016, and he continued to serve as Chairperson of the Board of Trustees of the Medical University until 2019, meaning him being the Chairperson of the Board of Trustees was not conditioned by the fact that he was Minister of Education and Science; therefore, abuse of official position cannot be ascribed to him.

As far as the charge of so-called money-laundering is concerned, Armen Ashotyan noted that even though this has become a matter of ridicule and laughter in Armenia, it is clear for him why that article was ‘attached’ to him under the order of Nikol Pashinyan at the last minute.

“This article is funny for me and you, but since the authorities saw very well that there are European responses to the persecutions against me and that they will surely not be the last responses, they decided to allegedly throw dirt on me because the Europeans look at this as a very bad article. The charge of money-laundering is considered a very grave article, and it reminds me of an attempt to make my European colleagues turn away from me or be disappointed in me,” the Vice-President of the RPA said.

The latter assured that this is a pointless attempt because he has transmitted the relevant information to the places where it needed to be transmitted and has explained how shallow this case and the charge brought against him are in general
“This charge has nothing to do with me. They could have successfully charged me with trafficking, the sale of human organs and the creation of an Islamist terrorist group as well…The grounds are the same, there is no difference. It is a fabricated article,” Armen Ashotyan said.

The Vice-President of the RPA also provided an interesting piece of information — the dates of all the decisions rendered with regard to him are dated November 16th.

“In other words, it is clear that a political decision was initially taken to not allow me to exit the country, after which they fabricated and attached certain documents under that decision,” Armen Ashotyan concluded.

Gohar Savzyan