Head of Armenian Special Investigation Service  does not have  information on Russian citizenship of former defense minister Mikael  Harutyunyan

ArmInfo.The head of the Armenian Special Investigation Service (SIS) does not have information about the possible Russian citizenship of the former defense minister,  chief military inspector Mikael Harutyunyan, who was put on the  wanted list. "According to the information we have, Mikael  Harutyunyan is a citizen of the Republic of Armenia alone," Head of  the department Sasun Khachatryan told ArmInfo on 2 August.

At the same time, Khachatryan refrained from answering whether it is  legitimate for a foreign citizen to hold such a high military post in  the Armenian state. Nevertheless, as he pointed out, information  about the Russian citizenship of Mikael Harutyunyan will be checked.

To recall, on July 28 the first instance court of Shengavit district  of Yerevan granted the request of the Special Investigation Service  of Armenia about choosing arrest as a preventive measure against the  second President Robert Kocharyan for a period of 2 months for the  overthrow of the constitutional order in the criminal case related to  events on March 1, 2008. Former Defense Minister Mikael Harutyunyan  (wanted by Interpol) and CSTO Secretary General Yury Khachaturov are  also accused of overthrowing the constitutional order in connection  with these events (the latter was released on bail). Kocharyan  himself prior to the arrest called the charges against him a  political persecution.

Meanwhile, recently the media reported that Mikael Harutyunyan is  currently in Russia, moreover, he is a Russian citizen. Against this  background, as mentioned, Harutyunyan's extradition is unlikely,  since according to the Criminal Procedure Code of Russia, extradition  of a person for criminal prosecution is not allowed if the person  against whom a request has been received from a foreign state is a  citizen of the Russian Federation.