The trial of Prosperous Armenia Party leader Gagik Tsarukyan and Multi Group director Sedrak Arustamyan continued on February 12 at the Anti-Corruption Criminal Court, presided over by Judge Aram Grigoryan.
The PAP leader is charged under Article 154.2 of the Criminal Code for giving and receiving voter bribes, violating charity restrictions during elections, or obstructing the free will of voters.
According to Iravaban.net, former deputy Abraham Manukyan was summoned to court.
According to the charges, he gave electoral bribes for voting in favor of PAP and its nominated candidate during the 2017 parliamentary elections. In this proceeding, he previously had the status of accused, but the criminal prosecution was later terminated due to the statute of limitations.
The presiding judge said that given this circumstance, Manukyan could exercise his right to remain silent.
Regarding this, Manukyan made the following statement: “As you mentioned earlier, I was in the status of accused in this case, and since I think that giving testimony today could be used against me in the future, I am exercising my right to refuse to testify, I ask that my refusal be considered legitimate.”
Public prosecutor David Aghajanyan said that the decision to terminate the prosecution against Manukyan based on the statute of limitations has entered into legal force, and under these conditions, refusing to testify and considering it legitimate is not justified.
Accordingly, the prosecutor motioned to publish the witness’s preliminary investigation testimony.
The court granted the motion, and according to the available materials, before the 2017 parliamentary elections, bribes were distributed to residents of Gegharkunik region for voting in favor of PAP, the money belonged to Gagik Tsarukyan, and Manukyan carried out the financial operations.
During questioning by the investigator, he stated that he had known party chairman Gagik Tsarukyan since 2011, has had no connection with him for 3 years, and in other years had business relationships.
When asked whether he received monetary or other compensation from party members, he replied: “I have not made any party-related expenses, have not received any compensation from members, have not dealt with financial issues, therefore I cannot answer the question. My involvement in party matters has been of a professional-advisory nature.”
He also stated that during the 2017 parliamentary elections, organizational work should have been coordinated by the party chairman, headquarters chiefs, and territorial representatives, and he does not know who handled all of that.
Regarding the distribution of electoral bribes and the source of that money, he stated that during that time he met with various party members, but does not possess information about providing electoral bribes to citizens.
During the investigation, reports titled “Number of voters presented and amounts paid in the 2017 PAP deputy elections” were found during a search of an LLC belonging to Vazgen Poghosyan, the study of which revealed factual data about buying voters’ votes, and reports from pre-election campaigns in the specified electoral district of Gegharkunik region were also found.
The witness testified that he did not rule out that someone may have handed him a package to pass on to someone else, which he may not have refused. Vazgen Poghosyan’s testimony was also published.
After the publication of the testimonies, Manukyan approached the podium again and declared: “I said once, I won’t answer questions.”
A second witness in this case was questioned in court – Rubik Muradyan, who said he works as a teacher at a school. He had the status of accused in this case, was charged with giving bribes, but again the prosecution against him was terminated based on the statute of limitations.
The witness stated that he is still a PAP member, knows defendant Gagik Tsarukyan, has not had personal contact, and has seen him on television.
In response to questions from the court and prosecutor, he stated that he now remembers nothing, doesn’t know whether he wants to testify or not: “I don’t remember anything, what testimony should I give? You can ask some questions, I can answer, but since I don’t remember, I don’t know what to say, whether to testify or not.”
He noted that when testifying to the investigator, he was again questioned about elections and giving electoral bribes: “As far as I remember, they asked about distributing electoral bribes, I answered such questions – there was no such thing, there was only that I was responsible for that area (in the Verin Getashen polling station), they gave money for gasoline or there is a building that we rented and stayed in, but regarding electoral bribes there was nothing, I was even a commission member and was well aware that electoral bribery is criminally unacceptable.”
The witness noted that as a member of the Prosperous Armenia Party, they distributed booklets to citizens during that time.
In response to the public prosecutor’s questions, the witness also stated: “Even when giving testimony to the investigator I was so tense, although I’m tense now too, I can’t even hear well what you’re saying, I’m so tense.”
At the next court session in this case, the public prosecutor will publish the witness’s preliminary investigation testimonies.
Details in the videos.
Mariam Shahnazaryan
