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"INNOCENT" PAY BACK: SACKED ARMENIAN ROAD POLICE CHIEF SAYS NOT GUILTY, BUT PAYS STATE HALF MILLION "HONOR" DOLLARS
By Siranuysh Gevorgyan
ArmeniaNow
10.01.12 | 12:02
Armenia's former Road Police chief Margar Ohanyan has paid an
equivalent of about half a million dollars to the state budget to
compensate for missing funds that prosecutors say were embezzled
during his time in office and for what he was arrested, fired and
indicted last year.
At the start of a high-profile trial on Monday Ohanyan still pleaded
not guilty of charges of large-scale embezzlement of public funds and
abuse of office brought against him by the state. The colonel's defense
attorney said despite not admitting his guilt his client had decided to
compensate the loss of public funds - by collecting money from family
and friends - because it was a matter of 'honor and dignity' for him.
In late August Ohanyan was arrested and subsequently sacked in a
criminal investigation into the alleged theft of more than 150 tons
of fuel that was allotted to road police cars. The case against him
is based on incriminating testimony given by three of his former
subordinates also standing trial. Unlike Ohanyan they are not kept
in pre-trial detention.
At they first court hearing the former Road Police chief made some
remarkable statements, in particular dropping hints that his arrest
and prosecution were because of his personal relations with leading
officials of the police system.
Ohanyan's lawyer Mkrtich Vasakyan asked Yerevan's Kentron and
Nork-Marash district court to release his client on bail or under a
written agreement not to leave the city while the trial is on. Before
judge Mkhitar Papoyan retired to the deliberation room to make the
decision, Ohanyan said there was something that he wanted to talk
to the judge and the prosecuting attorney Harutyun Harutyunyan. The
judge said there was no such practice in court hearings, after which,
without giving specific names, Ohanyan said that he had been turned
from a witness into a suspect following just one phone call [from a
high-ranking official]. He did not specify who the alleged caller was.
"On August 30, I was summoned to the Special Investigation Service,
I wrote that there was no such thing, nor could be, for 40 minutes
there was nothing, but after one phone call, my status of a witness
was changed into that of a suspect and I was arrested. It had its
own circumstances that I cannot speak about. I beg you to be clear to
your conscience and consider that I have been in prison already for
four months and I don't know why. They simply needed to remove me,
arrest me so that they could complete what had been set from the
beginning," he said.
"The matter concerns the police structure where I worked. I should
have told you straightforwardly who had come and taken whom before the
Special Investigation Service. Don't wage someone else's battle. Don't
complete the case of my personal relations with corresponding senior
officials here," added Ohanyan.
Then addressing other defendants Ara Levonyan and Samvel Makhmudyan,
Ohanyan said: "I'll tell [the court] how it was, who was kept for
how many hours, who was the mediator, the high-ranking official --
whom I don't want to name - who got him [Levonyan] to be released
from the sixth department at three o'clock in the morning. You think
I won't tell, or you, who came and took you. So what that he is a
member of parliament?"
The court eventually rejected the petition from the counsel for
the defense about the defendant's release on bail. Talking to
journalists later Ohanyan's lawyer Vasakyan abstained from commenting
on his client's statements in court. He said that he did not want
to elaborate proceeding from defense tactics and that answers to all
questions would be provided during the trial.
The next hearing in the trial is due to take place on January 13.
By Siranuysh Gevorgyan
ArmeniaNow
10.01.12 | 12:02
Armenia's former Road Police chief Margar Ohanyan has paid an
equivalent of about half a million dollars to the state budget to
compensate for missing funds that prosecutors say were embezzled
during his time in office and for what he was arrested, fired and
indicted last year.
At the start of a high-profile trial on Monday Ohanyan still pleaded
not guilty of charges of large-scale embezzlement of public funds and
abuse of office brought against him by the state. The colonel's defense
attorney said despite not admitting his guilt his client had decided to
compensate the loss of public funds - by collecting money from family
and friends - because it was a matter of 'honor and dignity' for him.
In late August Ohanyan was arrested and subsequently sacked in a
criminal investigation into the alleged theft of more than 150 tons
of fuel that was allotted to road police cars. The case against him
is based on incriminating testimony given by three of his former
subordinates also standing trial. Unlike Ohanyan they are not kept
in pre-trial detention.
At they first court hearing the former Road Police chief made some
remarkable statements, in particular dropping hints that his arrest
and prosecution were because of his personal relations with leading
officials of the police system.
Ohanyan's lawyer Mkrtich Vasakyan asked Yerevan's Kentron and
Nork-Marash district court to release his client on bail or under a
written agreement not to leave the city while the trial is on. Before
judge Mkhitar Papoyan retired to the deliberation room to make the
decision, Ohanyan said there was something that he wanted to talk
to the judge and the prosecuting attorney Harutyun Harutyunyan. The
judge said there was no such practice in court hearings, after which,
without giving specific names, Ohanyan said that he had been turned
from a witness into a suspect following just one phone call [from a
high-ranking official]. He did not specify who the alleged caller was.
"On August 30, I was summoned to the Special Investigation Service,
I wrote that there was no such thing, nor could be, for 40 minutes
there was nothing, but after one phone call, my status of a witness
was changed into that of a suspect and I was arrested. It had its
own circumstances that I cannot speak about. I beg you to be clear to
your conscience and consider that I have been in prison already for
four months and I don't know why. They simply needed to remove me,
arrest me so that they could complete what had been set from the
beginning," he said.
"The matter concerns the police structure where I worked. I should
have told you straightforwardly who had come and taken whom before the
Special Investigation Service. Don't wage someone else's battle. Don't
complete the case of my personal relations with corresponding senior
officials here," added Ohanyan.
Then addressing other defendants Ara Levonyan and Samvel Makhmudyan,
Ohanyan said: "I'll tell [the court] how it was, who was kept for
how many hours, who was the mediator, the high-ranking official --
whom I don't want to name - who got him [Levonyan] to be released
from the sixth department at three o'clock in the morning. You think
I won't tell, or you, who came and took you. So what that he is a
member of parliament?"
The court eventually rejected the petition from the counsel for
the defense about the defendant's release on bail. Talking to
journalists later Ohanyan's lawyer Vasakyan abstained from commenting
on his client's statements in court. He said that he did not want
to elaborate proceeding from defense tactics and that answers to all
questions would be provided during the trial.
The next hearing in the trial is due to take place on January 13.