Nikol Pashinyan: Former Minister of Nature Protection Aram  Harutyunyan is accused of receiving a bribe of $ 14 million

ArmInfo. Today, the Prosecutor General sent a petition to the National Assembly to include on the agenda the issue of the arrest of the former Minister of Nature  Protection, MP Aram Harutyunyan. On December 3 at the time of the  election campaign, said the Acting Prime Minister of Armenia, head of  the My Step bloc Nikol Pashinyan in Armavir.

The Acting Prime Minister noted that Aram Harutyunyan is suspected of  receiving a bribe of $ 14 million.  "This is further evidence that we  will be consistent in the fight against corruption. The signal for  this crime came several months ago. However, since most of the  transactions were made through foreign banks, we could not properly  investigate this until we received banks officially responded to our  request, "Pashinyan said, stating that due to such circumstances, the  investigation of some corruption cases is sometimes delayed.

Pashinyan noted that Armenia does not officially authorized  structures known about the outcome of the case, but could not do  anything until then have not yet received an official response. "As  you know, criminal cases were brought against former officials, who  were later released, and there was talk that this was a show. But I  want to note that we will never make deals behind the backs of our  people. We can fix that today, the judicial system operates  independently of the government, but at the same time we have no  guarantees that the same judicial system operates independently of  former officials. Logically, they should not have such leverage, but  at the same time we know that 90% of officials in the region were  appointed to other departments of the country during the previous  government. And we have repeatedly stated that we would not arrange a  cadre genocide, and did not dismiss most of the same ministries.  However, lately there have been many problems that we intend to solve  by numerous reforms, "said Pashinyan.

The Acting Prime Minister also said that now there is concern that  the RPA MPs may not come to the parliament tomorrow and not provide a  quorum, or simply do not vote in favor of Harutyunyan's arrest. "I  hope that all MPs will not hinder the fight against corruption, but  in the most extreme case, the new parliament will address this  issue," Pashinyan stressed.

The Acting Prime Minister also noted that he hopes that it will soon  be established how much money was stolen and should be returned to  the state.

To recall, in October of this year, speaking in Parliament, Acting  Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced the imminent arrest of one  of the deputies as part of a large-scale investigation into the  corruption case. However, he stressed, that requires "one piece of  paper", which the investigation can not get for several months. The  name of the MP Pashinyan did not disclose at the same time, saying  only that this case leads to many other criminal plots. A few days  later, at a press conference, entrepreneur Silva Hambartsumyan stated  that it was certainly about Aram Harutyunyan. She admitted that she  bribed the former minister in the amount of $ 14 million for  obtaining a license to operate the mines.