Vardan Oskanyan: "Armenian Prosecutor General's appeal is a political order"

• Friday, September 28, 13:51

Prosecutor General of Armenia Aghvan Hovsepyan's appeal to the Parliament to deprive Vardan Oskanyan, ex-foreign minister of Armenia, MP from Prosperous Armenia Party, of his deputy immunity is a political order. The statement came from Vardan Oskanyan. 

To recall, Prosecutor General Hovsepyan appealed to the Parliament for a permission to involve Vardan Oskanyan as an accused party in the money laundering case against Civilitas Foundation. The appeal implies deprivation of deputy immunity, but not arrest.  

Oskanyan's statement provided to ArmInfo reads: ":since the first day when the National Security Service launched criminal proceedings, it was clear for me that it was a political order, but the criminal case had no legal framework." "I have not yet received any official notification that I was deprived of deputy immunity.  So, I don't want to make suppositions regarding the accusation. So far it was 'money laundering', 'tax evasion' or 'misappropriation of funds'. I will not be surprised at other absurd allegations. Irrespective of the accusation they have prepared for me this time, it cannot have any legal framework. For me it is just a new platform of political fight. Although it is not my method fo fighting, I am ready to fight till the very end. If all this pursues a goal to restrict my political activity and suppress my criticism of the authorities that have failed in all spheres, I can state for sure that the authorities have miscalculated badly. I am ready to continue my fight for real changes in the country even in such circumstances," Oskanyan says.

To recall, Civilitas Foundation was founded by Vardan Oskanyan, ex-FM of Armenia, parliamentarian representing Prosperous Armenia Party. 

On June 12 the National Security Service of the Republic of Armenia submitted details of the criminal case against Civilitas Foundation initiated on May 25 (article 190.3 of the Criminal Code of the RA money laundering). The criminal case against the Civilitas Foundation concerns the $2mln transaction for the sale of Huntsman Building Products, an Armenia-based company owned by US-based Polymer Materials and Huntsman International.