SIS and Prosecutor General’s Office failed to admit the press publication as a crime report
18:31, September 6, 2016 | News, Own news | Armed Forces
On June 30, 2016, www.aravot.am electronic media published an article entitled “I left RA to save my life” where a former senior police officer made statements on abuse of powers by the Ministry of Defense and prosecution against him. In his interview to the media in the article above, Harutyun Vopanyan, former head of the Rapid-Response Department of Yerevan Garrison Military Police, mentioned the violations by officials and the pressure against him by citing particular cases.
H. Vopanyan provided information and data containing information on a crime.
On the same day, the same media published an article entitled “Vopanyan received a bribe of $ 3,800; MoD denies his allegations calling him “immoral”, where H. Vopanyan stated that “to remove him from the system, Varazdat Badalyan, Prosecutor at the Military Prosecutor’s Office of Yerevan Garrison, pressured an officer to testify as if he took bribes and concealed a case on an incident in Echmiadzin.”
On June 28, 2016, the above media also published an article entitled “Remarkable exposure of abuses of power by MoD senior officials. In this article, Vopanyan provided information on the theft of vehicles, batteries and tires in February and March of 2012.
Based on the above and guided by the fact that those publications contained information on crimes committed by senior officials, on July 13, 2016, Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly-Vanadzor submitted an application to Gevorg Kostanyan, RA Prosecutor General, on admitting Harutyun Vopanyan’s statements as a crime report, initiating a criminal case, detecting the senior officials responsible for abuses and crimes and holding them liable.
On July 26, the RA Prosecutor General’s Office Department for High-Profile Cases responded to our application addressing the circumstances therein.
In particular, the Department informed us that on February 15, 2012, the 4th Garrison Investigative Department of the RA Special Investigative Service initiated criminal proceedings under Article 205(1) of the RA Criminal Code on failure by the staff of the RA MoD Yerevan Garrison Military Police Department to submit reports on turnover and revenues throughout the activities of the café-shop owned by ‘Zinar’ CJSC in the area of the Military Institute after V. Sargsyan as well as failure to pay taxes and other compulsory payments as mentioned in the publication entitled ‘Remarkable exposure of abuses of power by MoD senior officials’.
During the preliminary investigation under the criminal proceedings, the Company fully paid the penalty and fines identified by the inspection and on December 28, 2013, it was decided to suspend the criminal proceedings.
As for the episode on “falsifying a case” against Harutyun Vopanyan as mentioned in the publication entitled ‘I left RA to save my life’, the RA Prosecutor General’s Office Department for High-Profile Cases informed that on July 23, 2012 the Military Prosecutor’s Office of Yerevan Garrison initiated criminal proceedings under Article 311(4)(2) of the RA Criminal Code to the effect that to conceal the fact of knife-fight at the military unit, in December 2011 Vopanyan demanded and received from H. Y. a particularly large amount of US $ 3,800. On August 30, it was decided to involve H. Vopanyan as an accused under the Article above and put him on the list of wanted persons.
To sum up, the RA Prosecutor General’s Office Department for High-Profile Cases concluded that the publications above contained no information on any crimes still at the stage of preparation or already committed or elements of crimes charged on persons doing special military services or other persons.
On August 16, the RA Special Investigative Service also responded to our application informing us that its consideration showed that there were no bases for admitting a crime report and making a decision based on it under Article 181 of the RA Criminal Procedure Code.
To support its statement, the RA SIS mentioned that the publication contained no information on any particular crimes committed by any special entities to be investigated by the RA Special Investigation Services investigators under Article 190(6) of the RA Criminal Procedure Code, except from the subjective judgments and assumptions of Harutyun Vopanyan wanted under Article 311(4)(2) of the RA Criminal Code.