RA Investigative Committee reports arrest of ex-ministers

ArmInfo.A decision has been made to detain former Minister of Education and Science of the Republic of Armenia Armen Ashotyan, Finance Minister Gagik  Khachatryan, his son Artyom Khachatryan, former Defense Minister Vigen Sargsyan, former Rector of the Valery Brusov State University  Gayane Gasparyan, former Vice Rector Artur Avagyan, and former Deputy Director of the Yerevan Mall Harutyun Tadevosyan on charges of abuse  of office and money laundering in excess of 200 million drams. 

This was reported by the Investigative Committee of the Republic of  Armenia. A criminal case has been opened against the aforementioned  individuals under the relevant articles of the Criminal Code of the  Republic of Armenia for abuse of office, complicity thereto, and the  laundering of particularly large sums of money by a group of  individuals. A decision has been made to detain the defendants, who  are still at large, and bring them to court.

The basis for the criminal case was the illegal, according to the  investigators, alienation of a large property (approximately 451.1  square meters) and a plot of land located on Pushkin Street, which  belonged to Bryusov University.

In a gross violation of the law, the higher education institution was  deprived of the right to manage and use the property allocated to it  for educational purposes.

It is worth noting that, according to available information, Armen  Ashotyan, Vice Chairman of the Republican Party and former Minister  of Education and Science, is already being investigated by the  Investigative Committee.