ArmInfo. Former Chief of the General Staff of the Armenian Armed Forces, former head of the military control service, Colonel-General Movses Hakobyan has been brought in as a defendant in a criminal case of disclosing state secrets, which is being investigated by the National Security Service (NSS).
As reported by the press service of the RA NSS, the preliminary investigation of the criminal case has been completed. During the investigation, it turned out that Hakobyan, thanks to his many years of service, and having the right to access information constituting a state secret, on November 19, 2020, during one of his public interviews, published documents containing top-secret information. In particular, he published information revealing the directions of long-term forecasts of programs for the development of weapons and military equipment, as well as programs for the use of the armed forces, other troops, civil defense forces, operational and other programs.
<Due to the sufficient evidence obtained in the framework of the criminal case, the former high-ranking military man was prosecuted as accused of committing a crime under Part 1 of Art. 306 of the RA Criminal Code (disclosure of state secrets), and a preventive measure was chosen in relation to him. On June 29, 2021, the criminal case with the indictment was sent to the prosecutor's office, which controls the lawfulness of the preliminary investigation, for its further transfer to the court, "the RA NSS reported.
At the same time, the National Security Service called on persons entitled to access state secrets to strictly observe requirements of the Law of the Republic of Armenia "On State and Official Secrets", since they are protected by the state and their dissemination may have serious consequences for the security of the Republic of Armenia.
It is also recalled that Article 306 of the RA Criminal Code provides for criminal liability for intentional or careless disclosure of state secrets, and the aggravating part of the same article provides for imprisonment for a term of three to seven years.
It should be reminded that the grounds for initiating a criminal case were the statements made by Hakobyan at a meeting with journalists immediately after the end of hostilities in the zone of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Then, a high-ranking military man spoke about the mistakes and omissions made during the war. Based on the materials prepared at the press conference of the former head of the military control service of the Ministry of Defense Movses Hakobyan, a criminal case was initiated in the Prosecutor General's Office under Article 308 Part 2 (Abuse of Official Powers, Involving Negligently Serious Consequences) of the RA Criminal Code.