The relatives of Tigran Khachatryan are raising an alarm: the businessman has been detained and held in the Russian Federation for more than 8 months. Khachatryan’s daughter is convinced that her father has been targeted by a transnational criminal group, which continues to terrorize their family with the intention of extortion.
According to her, the case being investigated in the Russian Federation is based on the testimonies of two secret witnesses, whose identities are known to the Khachatryans. One of the secret witnesses, according to Marina Khachatryan, is her mother’s childhood friend, who even lived in their home for some time.
“She played a major role in this whole process. When my father was arrested, people from different places came and told us how joyfully she was spreading that video, which was shared by various Russian media outlets,” Marina recounts.
The Khachatryans had cut ties with this secret witness before the events in the Russian Federation took place. They had discovered that the woman had mortgaged properties belonging to them under unknown conditions. They learned about this later and obliged her to remove the mortgaged properties.
Marina Khachatryan notes that after her father’s arrest, she encountered the woman in a grocery store. The woman tried to approach Marina and talk to her, but the latter turned away and left.
“She was trying to greet me, approach me, talk to me, but remembering all that, I turned my head and left the store. She saw that I was very tense towards her. After that, she started spreading rumors that I allegedly set her car on fire,” says Marina.
“The criminal proceedings related to the car arson have been associated with the extortion case, and we have concerns that the arson was either artificial or carried out by other individuals for a different purpose,” says advocate Ashot Simonyan.
A criminal investigation is initiated, and the inquiry reveals that Marina Khachatryan has no connection to the car arson. It also becomes clear that all of this is related to the case being investigated in the Russian Federation: “The handwriting was clear. They organized all this to pressure me here, to file criminal charges against me, and under these pressures, our family would weaken and fulfill their demands.”
Marina Khachatryan learned that the burned car was mortgaged by the secret witness. Financial problems had led her to be declared bankrupt by the court. She knew in advance that she would lose the car. Tigran Khachatryan’s daughter is not certain, but she has well-founded suspicions that the car was set on fire by that woman herself.
When relations with the Khachatryans cooled, the secret witness began to collaborate more closely with members of the transnational criminal group, whose organizer is one of the family’s relatives. He and Tigran Khachatryan had conducted business together.
The Khachatryan family and their advocates have repeatedly appealed to investigative bodies, asking for an investigation into the arson and extortion cases, but no progress has been recorded in the proceedings.
“Financial demands arose, my father didn’t agree, he said, ‘Go to court, choose the legal path.’ But he didn’t choose that path: by fabricating a false case against my father, he wants to put pressure on us. They sent intermediary people to our home, passed messages. Once, one of our acquaintances came with a phone without a SIM card and headphones. He said he was coming with an offer from that person, but there was a demand that we should talk only with the headphones and that phone. In other words, an offer would be voiced from there that no one except us should hear. These offers come in different ways: ‘Give us the money, and your father’s issue will be resolved.’ If you don’t give it, your father will stay there, will sit for 15-20 years, will be sent to Siberia. One expression also left a strong impression: ‘He will return home in a Cargo-200’ [military code for the transportation of dead bodies],” Marina recounts.
The female secret witness had previously announced that she was going to Moscow and would testify against Tigran Khachatryan.
Marina insists that the threats have intensified and are continuous. Law enforcement agencies are aware of all this, but the Khachatryan family maintains that no action is being taken by them.
The family has been able to communicate with Tigran Khachatryan during these 8 months only through an advocate: “My father says he hasn’t done anything and is confident that there will be justice. We are living with that hope.”
Details in the video.
