21:33, 30 April 2019

Robert Kocharyan, ex-President of Armenia, accused of receiving bribe of USD 3 million

Robert Kocharyan. Photo © administration of Robert Kocharyan

The Armenian General Prosecutor's Office (GPO) voiced out the amounts of bribes, received, according to the GPO, by the second Armenian President, Robert Kocharyan, accused also of suppressing the 2008 protests.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on February 16, 2019, investigators charged Kocharyan and three other former high-ranking officials, Seiran Oganyan, the ex-Defence Minister; Yuri Khachaturov, the ex-Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces; and Armen Gevorgyan, Deputy Prime Minister.

Kocharyan was arrested on July 27, 2018; apart from the "March 1 case", he is accused of a large-scale financial crimes and bribery. The court extended Kocharyan's arrest for several times.

The GPO has accused Kocharyan of receiving a bribe of 917 million drams (about 3 million US dollars) for lobbying the "TSSC Armenia" Company, working in the mining sector.

Mr Kocharyan is also accused of overthrowing the constitutional order "with the criminal participation of other persons", informs the Armenian Service of Radio Liberty – the "Radio Azatutyun".

The riots on March 1-2, 2008, in Yerevan, triggered by people's disagreement with the victory of Serzh Sargsyan at presidential election, led to the death of ten people. Kocharyan introduced then a state of emergency in Armenia.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on April 30, 2019 at 05:08 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.