On 8 July, the Anti-Corruption Criminal Court held a hearing in the case of former Head of Police Vladimir Gasparyan, his former deputy Levon Yeranosyan, Head of the Internal Audit Department of the Police Vardan Tunyan, and Commander of Police Unit Gurgen Grigoryan. Judge Vardges Sargsyan presided over the session.
According to the case materials, the Head of the Internal Audit Department of the Police, Vardan Tunyan, asked Yeranosyan to accept his acquaintance Vahram Nazaryan to serve in the police forces. The mentioned person was hired, but did not show up for duty. Instead, he performed the duties of Tunyan’s driver. In this case, the state suffered a particularly large loss in the amount of 7 million 954 thousand AMD, as a result of which, through negligence, serious consequences were caused.
According to Iravaban.net, Vladimir Gasparyan, defender Alexander Kochubayev , said that he had a petition before making defense speeches. He mediated to appoint a forensic medical examination to ascertain the state of health, to ask the expert the following questions: what disease or diseases does Vladimir Gasparyan currently suffer from? And if whether these diseases are included in the list adopted by the Government of the RA on 26 May 2006.Aand whether the discovered diseases can be an obstacle to serving the prison sentence that may be imposed on him according to the list approved by the same decision.
Due to medical confidentiality, the session was held behind closed doors, after which a 10-minute break was announced.
After the break, the court session was held with open doors, the court decided to reject the petition, because none of the diseases were included in the list defined by the Government of the Republic of Armenia in its decisions.
“Fortunately for you, these diseases do not have the complicated degree defined by the relevant decision of the Government, therefore, under the current conditions, there is no need to restart the trial and appoint a forensic medical examination for Gasparyan,” the Judge said.
Vladimir Gasparyan’s defense attorney Alexander Kochubayev made his defense speech.
He began his speech by quoting Vladimir Gasparyan’s words: “I do not seek my own glory, I live by my faith in the Lord, I am ready to be stoned, fall, and go again, because no deed will go unpunished…”
The defender noted that they did not miss the fact that, for example, from 2018 until now, the security of the Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly, and later the President of the National Assembly, Alen Simonyan, is provided by the employees of the General Department of the Fight Against Organized Crime, the security of the deputy of the National Assembly Arman Babajanyan was provided at the rallies by the General Department of the Fight Against Organized Crime. Moreover, currently the security of the Civil Contract Party building is ensured by the “Red Berets” of the Special Purpose Battalion.
“This is an abnormal phenomenon, but not a criminal one, because we will also come to that phenomenon later: whether V. Gasparyan was informed about the situation that existed around the three servants, but I do not see any criminality here, an act bordering on crime, in all cases.
This would mean a presumption of insanity, because, for example, Mr. Yenokyan, for whom I have absolute and emphatic respect, currently holds the position of Deputy Head of the Department for Confiscation of Property of Illegal Origin of the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Republic of Armenia, and that department has nothing to do with the supervision of the act blamed on Vladimir Gasparyan, this is typical of, for example, the supervision of anti-corruption or cases investigated in the Special Investigation Service at that time, and what is it, is Mr. Yenokyan abusing his authority, or the person who sent him to establish supervision in this criminal case, abusing it? Certainly not,” the defender noted.
According to him, 55-60 documents were handed over to Gasparyan for signature per day, of which only 5 were reported on average, and the orders, awards of titles were not reported to him, that is, they were “non-reportable issues”.
The defender emphasizes that Vladimir Gasparyan was not in Armenia only as the head of the Military Police, he represented the RA all over the world, he was the representative of the RA on various platforms, and physically granting someone a new position, extending the term of the contract did not have the importance of reporting to Vladimir Gasparyan .
“We have many testimonies, I would especially like to mention the testimonies of Kamo Mirzakhanyan, Arshaluys Taproshyan, Armen Simonyan, Tigran Muradyan, that the so-called attestation was sometimes of a formal nature, and these persons confirmed it with their testimonies. Only one officer stated that he saw Vladimir Gasparyan physically, all the other interrogated witnesses either did not participate in attestations, or the petitions from their military units were submitted to higher courts, from where the already signed contracts were returned. We do not have the factual data that, for example, Gasparyan gave a direct instruction to any employee that these 3 employees should not attend work and should turn a blind eye or should not deal with this issue.”
Alexander Kochubayev emphasized that there is no information in the case file that Vladimir Gasparyan, for example, called the commander of the battalion, his deputy, and told him to hire these three officers, and did not inquire about where they were and what they were doing. There is also no argument that Gasparyan instructed anyone to prepare a contract, a conclusion, to assign the attestation as positive.
“Vladimir Gasparyan was not entrusted with funds, and fourthly, Vladimir Gasparyan could not carry out personnel movement on his own. In other words, the accusations regarding embezzlement and squandering are completely groundless, because, according to the indictment, Vladimir Gasparyan was informed, moreover, he gave instructions so that no one would be interested in the absence of these persons, but we do not have that information. Beautiful lines are written about this part in the accusation, but the accusation should be argued. “It is not a crime to be appointed to any position and to perform service arising from another position,” he said.
He mentioned that he submitted a petition so that Valery Osipyan could be heard in court, because he, having received the keys to the house from Vladimir Gasparyan, in the event that he owned a house, and could not claim to receive an apartment according to the procedure established by the Government’s decision, he received a house, but when he sent a letter to the head of the special investigation service that abuse was discovered, but did not write his name. “Well, if Vladimir Gasparyan misused his powers or was wasting, committed a crime, the same report and note was made against Osipyan. Before Vladimir Gasparyan, no one in the police force had received an apartment for 60 years, after Vladimir Gasparyan’s tenure, no police officer has received an apartment.”
“In the defense speech, we should try to recall who is being talked about, who is sitting in the chair of the accused. Until 9 May or the morning of 10 May, 2018, even greeting Vladimir Gasparyan with his hand would have been considered an immense professional step, but today we put this person on the bench, we say: you gave him an apartment, you committed embezzlement, you committed waste, i.e. all his merits, starting from the struggle for Independence, starting from all the battles for survival in Artsakh, and ending with the professional police system, are being ignored,” Kochubayev said.
Summarizing the speech, the defender asked Vladimir Gasparyan to declare himself innocent, to recognize and declare his innocence.
Vladimir Gasparyan also made a speech, saying: “When I speak, I gain enemies, when I remain silent, victories, I will sit prudently…”
In his last speech, the defendant Vardan Tunyan asked to take into account his path, his activities, and not to ignore the work he had done. “When I came from Moscow, I was appointed to the most important post of the Ministry of Defense; those who know me will confirm my lifestyle, my behavior, and my mode of living; nothing changed, I served honorably and conscientiously and there was no stain or streak.
Later, the business trips of the Internal Audit Department in the police, before my tenure, reached 60-70 million drams per year, during the years I was in charge, the maximum was 5-7 million drams, and I was blamed for wasting 124 liters of gasoline on a monthly basis, or appointing a familiar driver, or some driver serving the family. It’s absurd for me.”
The defendant Gurgen Grigoryan insisted that he did not accept the charges brought against him, and as the commander of the military unit, he took all preventive measures when it was reported that no soldier had reported for duty, and he immediately reported to the higher command.
“I am sure that you will make the right decision,” Grigoryan said.
Levon Yeranosyan did not want to have the last word.
The verdict will be announced today on 9 July.
Details in the video.
Mariam Shahnazaryan
