On 12 April, the Anti-Corruption Criminal Court presided over by Judge Tigran Davtyan, continued the Court session in the case of the National Nero of Armenia, former Minister of Emergency Situations Andranik Piloyan and 12 other defendants.
It should be noted that in addition to Andranik Piloyan, Ashot Hakobyan, Vigen Mkrtchyan, Hrachya Yeremyan, Mihrdat Matevosyan, Artur Ohanyan, Ara Yaghjyan, Gor Hambardzumyan, Artak Beibutyan, Tatul Gevorgyan, Tigran Gasparyan, Gagik Poghosyan and Vigen Grigoryan (arrested) were also charged.
According to Iravaban.net, Ara Yaghjian was questioned at the Court session in this case. His defense attorney asked what activities the “SOS Systems” Company was engaged in, and what relations there were with the Ministry of Emergency Situations.
Tigran Davtyan
Ara Yaghjian answered: “Being the founder of several companies that were already successful in the field of Information and Telecommunication Technologies (ITT), I decided to establish a company that will operate in the field of security system implementation and maintenance. We went to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, if I’m not mistaken, it was 2011. I consider it necessary to state that at that time the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications had just been created and did not yet have any IT or ITT infrastructure. As at that time and so it is now, the Ministry’s budget did not provide any means for the implementation of our proposal, and our newly created company proposed to invest the platform with its own funds and to do further technical maintenance with our funds.
According to the accusation, committing obvious illegal acts in favor of “SOS Systems” LLC cooperating with the Ministry and patronizing the service, that is, the director of the said company interceding with the relevant officials in obtaining the necessary permits to build an apartment building in the neighborhood of the Ministry, as well as providing similar services for creating obstacles for other entrepreneurs. Piloyan, with support of his advisor Ashot Hakobyan, received a large bribe of 1,000,000 drams in 2022. As a result of the search, the specified amount was found in Hakobyan’s safe.
According to Yaghjian, the Company had an agreement with the Ministry of Emergency Situations to direct 20% of the revenue received from the provision of firefighting services to the “National Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction” Fund.
The next question of the defender was as follows: on 2 February, 2022, the following conversation took place between the Assistant Minister Ashot Hakobyan and the Minister in the office of the latter in MES. “I brought the guys from SOS, they watched the engine to specify the prices, to make a truck, there is iron here that costs 350-400 euros, it can be brought in three weeks, I called the specialists of the truck, tell them to bring it to the guys, they came to measured it, but it will cost 1 million 800 thousand drams with our guarantee.”
The defender was interested in what it was about. Yaghjian said that at the end of December 2021, Hakobyan called him and said that a meeting with the Minister of MES was scheduled. The purpose of the meeting was that the Minister wanted to hand over a letter of gratitude to him for the work done, and he wanted to congratulate the staff of the Ministry on the New Year, but that meeting was canceled.
“Then I learned that the meeting scheduled two days ago was postponed due to a power outage in almost the entire area of the MES building. I asked why they didn’t turn on the generators, and I was informed that both generators, one of which was purchased by the efforts of our company, did not work. I immediately supported the Ministry,” Yaghjian said.
He mentioned that the specialists went, looked at the problems of the generator, evaluated and said that it will cost approximately four to five million drams, the process will take about 3 months. He replied that since he had given his word, he would take care of those expenses, but the payment would be made in parts.
The mentioned employees were not the guys of “SOS Systems” Company, they were sent by the partner Company of “SOS Systems”.
He asked the defender to present the circumstances regarding the transfer of the MES consent to this permit to the Mayor through the Head of the Davtashen Administrative District. He answered that he bought the land near the Ministry years ago from a private person who had nothing to do with the Ministry of Emergency Situations, he wanted to make a new investment project and build an apartment building.
He emphasized: “Discussions of this program took place about 1 year before the events described in that case, in accordance with the phases and deadlines set by the law. During one of the phone conversations with Ashot Hakobyan, I asked him to inform the new Mayor about this project through the Head of the Davtashen Administrative District, to which Mr. Hakobyan said that they have nothing to do with the Head of the Administrative District, that is, he rejected my request.”
Yaghjian also mentioned that all conversations took place before the appointment of Andranik Piloyan. He took part in some of the 5 meetings-discussions held at the MES and SCPEC. Prosecutor Koryun Serobyan asked if he ever transferred anything to Ashot Hakobyan or received any object from him.
Yaghjian said that there was never a problem of receiving, every year they brought different gifts: drinks, cognac, congratulated the New Year, and most of the gifts were not from him.
During the meeting with Ashot Hakobyan, he mentioned that he gave Hakobyan a phone or a charging device, which was again due to the New Year’s greetings. The company sent similar gifts to other places as well.
The prosecutor asked:
– What was your opinion about Andranik Piloyan, when he was Minister of Emergency Situations, was it positive or negative?
– Mr. Prosecutor, do you know how many heroes RA has?
– I know, you cannot ask me, I am asking.
– I communicated with a heroic man at that time, and I still communicate with him now. What can the opinion towards the hero of RA be? It has definitely been positive and, in my opinion, will always remain positive. It was more positive than about other Ministers that I interacted with.
When asked what they talked about in Andranik Piloyan’s office, he answered that he thanked him, they also talked about the electricity problem, and that conversation lasted for only 10 minutes. The question of generators arose from that conversation. The judge asked whether his will was exclusively for the repair of generators or not.
Yaghjian answered that it was the primary issue.
After the questioning, the issue of changing Vigen Mkrtchyan’s order for measure of restraint was discussed as well. Mkrtchyan said that he often goes to the hospital because of various health problems.
After hearing the positions of the parties, the Court, decided to replace house arrest with administrative control from the alternative means of restraint, keeping the other means of restraint.
Ashot Hakobyan was questioned the next. He mentioned that he joined the Ministry of Emergency Situations as an advisor to the Minister from 25 December, 2020. Taking into account the Minister’s personal relations, he helped the Minister’s son with the renovation of the apartment purchased with a mortgage. He turned to a specialist to install a heating system, he said that his preferred system, which will ensure the heating of the apartment, costs more than 700 thousand. The Minister said that this money was transferred to Hrach Yeremyan. He informed Hakobyan that the system is an Italian product, which is located in the garage.
He went to see the heating system with the relevant specialist, the specialist said that it is Chinese. Naturally, Yeremyan insisted that it is Italian made. “I would like to clarify that during various conversations, I mentioned different figures, for example, 1 million drams, 1,600 dollars, 2,000 dollars, which were private conversations. I cannot say exactly how much money the Minister gave to Yeremyan. I have no information about the bribe, it did not happen.”
According to the accusation, Yeremyan bought a Baxi Boiler worth about 644,000 AMD and necessary parts for its operation from one of the shops of the “Ideal System” Chain Stores. The discounted price of the boiler alone was around 341,000 AMD. Yeremyan kept all this in his garage in order to pass it on to Piloyan later.
After some time, Piloyan’s advisor Ashot Hakobyan started the process of moving and installing the heating boiler in the apartment purchased in the name of Andranik Piloyan’s son and daughter. During that time, Hakobyan learned that Hrachya Yeremyan has raised the price of the boiler and informed Piloyon about it, which caused the latter’s anger.
Then the Minister called Hrachya Yeremyan to him, scolded him, and then demanded that he leave his office. After all this, Yeremyan moved the Baxi boiler to the house of Piloyan’s son and daughter, Ashot Hakobyan took the missing money from Yeremyan and transferred it to Piloyan in different ways.
According to Iravaban.net, Ashot Hakobyan used his right to remain silent and refused to answer the parties’ questions.
The Judge mentioned that Hrachya Yeremyan will be interrogated at the next Court session.
The next Court hearing is on 19 April.
