On 4 April, the investigation of the criminal case suspended in 2000 and later resumed regarding the former Minister of Internal Affairs of Armenia, writer and publicist Vano Siradeghyan continued in the Anti-Corruption Criminal Court. Judge Vahe Dolmazyan presided over the court session.

According to the accusation Vano Siradeghyan, in the position of minister, in the summer of 1992, organized a stable armed criminal group (gang) through Armen Sahak Ter-Sahakyan, which he included in the trusted to him system and armed with various types of firearms and ammunition, and later sponsored the gang and hid numerous robberies and other crimes that the gang committed.

In July 1999, the criminal case against Vano Siradeghyan and 11 other defendants was sent with an indictment, to the Court of Malatia-Sebastia Community. The Head of the Interior Troops Department of the RA Ministry of Internal Affairs Vahan Harutyunyan and other representatives of the internal troops were among the accused. (The criminal case against Armen Ter-Sahakyan and others was sent to the court earlier and was heard in another court).

In 2000, Vano Siradeghyan fled; the part concerning him was separated from the case of Vahan Harutyunyan and others. The charges brought against them were justified in court and they were convicted. The investigation of the case regarding Vano Siradeghyan was suspended in the court due to the fact that his location was not known.

Vano Siradeghyan died on 16 October, 2021. In 2022, the investigation of the criminal case against him was resumed. Lawyer Tigran Yegoryan informed that Khachatur Siradeghyan will demand to continue the investigation of the case with the expectation of acquittal. 

According to Iravaban.net, the court session started later than the scheduled time because the defense attorney Tigran Yegoryan was late. The defender stated that the problem was being burdened with another case.

The judge told the defense attorney that the latter had asked for time to get familiar with the case materials, and whether the court can continue the investigation of the case if the attorney had got acquainted with the case materials.

The defender mentioned that he has not fully familiarized himself with the materials of the case, it was not possible to look at the materials in their entirety, and there are materials that still need to be taken from the court. According to him, at the moment, they do not have any mediation related to obtaining evidence, but they cannot rule out that they will get to know some materials that are not yet available to them, and they will mediate to obtain those.

The court informed the participants of the trial that notices have been sent to the victims, who are about 20 in number. The court did not receive any information regarding the notifications of Mayis Rafaelyan, Artur Hakobyan, Artavazd Antonyan, the envelopes were not returned. In the case of Romik Avetisyan and Harutyun Sukiasyan, the notices were returned to the court with the note “dead”. In the case of Armen Simonyan, Tirayr Arakelyan, it is marked “unknown”, in the case of Surik Boyakhchyan, it is marked “absent”, in the case of Vladimir Grigoryan, it is marked “not requested”, as far as the court knows, the victim is dead. In the case of Karlen Ghandilyan, it was again marked as “has moved”. Hayk Abajyan, Meruzhan Abrahamyan, Khachatur Atabekyan and Vahan Khachatryan have been duly notified.

The judge turned to Yegoryan, saying that he mentioned that certain motions are not excluded in case of getting acquainted with the case materials, can they go ahead to start the preparatory part or is it mandatory to get acquainted with the missing part of the materials?

In response to the judge’s question, the defense attorney stated that that it is desirable to have enough time to look through the materials and continue the investigation of the case.

The court again provided opportunity to the defense to get acquainted with the necessary materials, so that if there are relevant petitions, they will be presented.

Yegoryan emphasized: “Mr. Siradeghyan is not considering whether or not to submit a petition related to the termination of the case, he does not have such a question, he wants to delve into the case and try to do everything necessary for him within the framework of this issue. We are not going to surprise, for example, with another session or any other session, saying that we are requesting to terminate the case proceedings based on this fact, we are talking about procedural positions and petitions.

The judge noted that the court did not discuss or say such a thing at all.

The the next court session will be held on 22 May.

Mariam Shahnazaryan