Epress.am News from Armenia
The testimonies of the accused, former battalion commander Stepan Karakhanyan and traffic police employees Ara Levonyan and Samvel Makhmuryan, were read out loud in court today during the high-profile trial of former RA Traffic Police Chief Margar Ohanyan, as they didn’t want to testify in court.
Recall, all three men, along with Ohanyan, are accused of embezzling approx. 2,500 tons of gasoline that was set aside for traffic police vehicles.
In his testimony, Makhmuryan mentioned that he always received gasoline from Ara Levonyan and, apart from the usual receipts he also had additional cards with which they wrote out gasoline and gave less gasoline to the staff. To questions from employees on being given less gasoline, Makhmuryan said this was according to management’s orders and urged them not to ask unnecessary questions.
During the pre-trial investigation, Ara Levonyan changed his testimony several times. In one instance, he said from Jan. 2009 to Jul. 2011, the first two battalions were given 493,820 liters of gasoline, which was shortened from the second battalion’s account. In his last testimony, he changed this figure, making it 574,420 liters.
Margar Ohanyan’s name wasn’t mentioned in any of the documents as the expenses were attributed to the battalions. According to Levonyan, this was all done as per Ohanyan’s orders, but he didn’t raise the matter with him as he wanted to avoid any problems and not be dismissed from his job.
Levonyan admitted his guilt, confessing that he colluded with the former police chief in embezzling the gasoline.
Stepan Karakhanyan said nearly the same thing, though in his first testimony he didn’t name names and confessed that he signed for as much gasoline as he received. But he later changed his testimony, and as in the previous two cases, confessed that he covered it up in such a way so that the deficit wouldn’t be evident.
Karakhanyan also said this was done as per Ohanyan’s orders.
Later, Karakhanyan confessed that he used a portion of the fuel he received for personal needs, giving it to his daughter and son for their use; however, he recovered the damage of 20 million 620 thousand drams (approx. $53.1 thousand USD).
The next court date is set for Feb. 20 at 11:30 am, during which time Margar Ohanyan will testify.