ArmInfo. Member of the National Assembly of Armenia from the ruling "Civil Contract" faction, former Minister of Health Arsen Torosyan does not intend to resign his parliamentary mandate. On March 16, he told reporters.
"I don't see any grounds for this," said the MP and former minister, commenting on the incident of his former deputy, and now the vice-mayor of Yerevan, Gevork Simonyan, who, according to the materials of the criminal case, was arrested for two months on charges of dereliction of duty which caused significant damage to the state. <I have clearly pointed out the problems on my Facebook page, point by point. I'm sure justice will prevail in the end. The deputy ministers of health and the head of the working group did not and could not have the functions on which the prosecution is built, with the exception of cases related to a criminal group of persons. It is necessary to get answers to all questions, otherwise a precedent may occur, according to which any official can be brought to trial for not doing something>, Torosyan said.
Earlier, the Investigative Committee of Armenia issued a message, according to which Vice-Mayor of Yerevan Gevorg Simonyan was arrested for two months. According to the case, Simonyan, while holding the post of Deputy Minister of Health in 2020-2022, did not fulfill his official duties. As a result of his actions, the state suffered significant damage. In particular, within the framework of the state program to prevent the spread, control and treatment of coronavirus infection, for which the state allocated 26 billion drams from the reserve fund, Simonyan was appointed responsible for coordinating the distribution of medical care and financial flows. At the same time, a list of medical institutions was approved that received compensation from the state for services for the diagnosis, treatment and detection of COVID-19. Among them was also the "Medline Clinic" medical center , the director of which Babken Shahumyan was convicted of falsifying the medical records of 385 patients treated at the medical center.