ArmInfo. As a person, I believe that the act of the ex-head of the Compulsory Enforcement Service, Mihran Poghosyan, who asked for political asylum in Russia, is unacceptable. On May 2, the Prosecutor General of Armenia Artur Davtyan stated in an interview with journalists.
He noted that, as Prosecutor General, he should note that anyone has the right to seek political asylum in one country or another. "The country from which a person asked for political asylum has the right not to give this process publicity. There were cases when political asylum was requested from Armenia and we also observed these norms. Until the end of this process, a person cannot be transferred" Davtyan stressed. The Prosecutor General also said that if Russia refuses to extract Poghosyan, it means that the latter was granted political asylum.
Regarding the comments of journalists that law enforcement agencies are not vigilant and allow former officials accused in certain cases to leave Armenia, and only then begin to search for them, Davtyan said: "Law enforcement agencies have the right to carry out action when there are grounds for this. A citizen has the freedom of movement. If a person left the country, we have certain legal mechanisms for this case, "he assured.
Davtyan noted that many people are trying to evade the investigation, however, not many succeed. <Naturally, there are cases when the extradition process is delayed, and this is quite normal. It happened that we also did not respond to our colleagues for a long time, there is nothing supernatural about this, "the Prosecutor General stressed.
To note, earlier, the Prosecutor General's Office of Armenia handed over a package of documents to the Russian side for the extradition of a former high-ranking official. On April 13, Mihran Poghosyan was summoned by the Special Investigation Service of Armenia as a defendant in a criminal case initiated under "Assignment or waste in especially large amounts" and "Abuse of office, resulting in serious consequences due to negligence". Later, Poghosyan was put on the national and international wanted list and was detained on April 19 in Petrozavodsk. He was arrested for 40 days, after which he asked for political asylum in Russia.