Today, the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia discussed the first motion submitted by the Prosecutor General of the Republic of Armenia to give consent for the initiation of criminal prosecution against the Leader of the Fraction of the National Assembly "Hayastan", the former Minister of Defense of the Republic of Armenia.

According to Article 96 of the Constitution, criminal prosecution against a deputy may be initiated only with the consent of the National Assembly. 

The petition on initiating criminal persecution is connected with the case of land grabbing of special importance, Yeraskh military unit.

“Seyran Ohanyan is blamed for committing criminal acts on 2 episodes of Article 179.3.1 of the RA Criminal Code adopted on April 18, 2003. That is: making use of his official position, especially carrying out waste in big amounts (two episodes), as well as, stemming from personal other and group interests, making use of his official position on the contrary to service interests, which negligently caused grave consequences,” the RA Prosecutor General Anna Vardapetyan noted, adding that the abovementioned committing criminal acts by Seyran Ohanyan was approved by a number of factual data achieved by the pre-examination of the criminal proceedings. The Prosecutor General also informed that Seyran Ohanyan refused to testify on alienating the abovementioned plots of land, at the same time, making use of his right, did not express any position on not carrying out criminal prosecution towards him on the basis of turning to the statute of limitations.

“Taking as a basis the proposal of the controlling Prosecutor on giving consent to initiate public criminal persecution towards the NA deputy Seyran Ohanyan and being led by Article 96 of the RA Constitution, Article 37.10 of the Criminal Proceedings Code, Article 108 of the constitutional law the NA Rules of Procedure, I mediate to give consent on initiating public criminal persecution towards the NA deputy Seyran Ohanyan,” the rapporteur informed.

The RA NA President inquired about the privatization of the military unit, then mortgage process. “Is there an explanation for what purpose the territory of the military unit was handed to a third person, then loaned in the bank. Is there any explanation that it was for the state interest or sent that money to other place?” the Head of Parliament asked.

According to the RA Prosecutor General, registering in the name of a third person had a goal of hiding the real buyer from the beginning. She underlined that in terms of state interest, no explanation sounded, the explanations were indefinite, as in the given situation can be expected.

Alen Simonyan added: “As people say, they turned the military unit into a sum of money, and there is no explanation why it was done.” The Prosecutor General once again underlined that with respect to state interest there is no explanation.

The second petition of the RA Prosecutor General on giving consent to initiate public criminal persecution towards the NA deputy Seyran Ohanyan was debated behind closed doors.