
ArmInfo. The Investigative Committee (IC) of Armenia has disclosed the reasons for the detention of Colonel Edik Maloyan, a veteran of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and holder of the Order of the Combat Cross, 1st Class.
The agency's press service told ArmInfo that the colonel was detained in connection with a criminal case initiated for the publication of information containing state secrets. It is noted that two officers have been detained in connection with the case. "During the preliminary investigation of the criminal case, the General Department for the Investigation of Crimes against the State, Fundamentals of the Constitutional System, and Public Security of the Investigative Committee of Armenia has obtained factual information indicating that E. M., as the commander of the N-th military unit of the Ministry of Defense (MoD) of Armenia with the rank of colonel, without the right to access information constituting a state secret, persuaded an officer of the same military unit, R. J., to disclose this information," the Investigative Committee reported. The department added that E. M. then made public this information, which contained a state secret and was obtained illegally. In this regard, the agency noted, a public criminal prosecution has been initiated against Maloyan under Part 1 of Article 426 of the Criminal Code of Armenia (disclosure of information containing a state secret by a person who has illegally obtained it) and Part 1 of Articles 46-427 (incitement to disclose information containing a state secret), while R.D. is charged under Part 1 of Article 427 (disclosure of information containing a state secret).
"During the preliminary investigation, E.M. and R.D. were detained, and a petition has been submitted to the court to order pretrial detention as a preventive measure against them. The preliminary investigation is ongoing," the Investigative Committee of Armenia concluded.
Earlier, it was reported that Maloyan's home had been searched in the morning, after which he was detained. Narek Karapetyan, a member of the political council of the "Strong Armenia" bloc, wrote that the colonel was detained for wanting to live in a Strong Armenia. He recalled that Maloyan is the soldier who reclaimed the positions of Abajyan and Urfanyan (Artsakh heroes who died during the four-day April War of 2016 - ed.). Furthermore, it was he who, after the 2020 war, during border demarcation, when an Azerbaijani commander showed disrespect to an Armenian soldier and beat him in public, was dismissed from the army by the Armenian command.