Epress.am News from Armenia
A scandalous incident has occurred in Armenia's Ministry of Defense, involving the chief of Minister Seyran Ohanyan's security, Sergey Hayrapetov, cooking up a case against an army colonel, according to the local Zhoghovurd newspaper.
“It all started in March 2016 – before corruption-related investigations in the ministry were even made public and the 4-day April war had not yet begun.
“Thus, Colonel Samvel Khachatryan, the head of general control division of the defense ministry's control department, discovered that the prices of equipment supplied by 'El Tech Comp' LLC to the ministry were inflated. After rumours started to go around in the ministry about Khachatryan's activities, Sergey Hayrapetov warned the Colonel to forget the above-mentioned company and not to report his discoveries to the superiors, because otherwise he'd 'regret it.'
“However, Khachatryan ignored the 'advice' and is currently behind bars as a result. Meanwhile, Seyran Ohanyan and his security chief remain in their positions and companies continue to sell goods to the ministry at their desired prices,” Zhoghovurd writes.
Khachatryan's relatives, the paper continues, have told Zhoghovurd's reporters that Hayrapetov was personally involved in framing the colonel up with allegedly fabricated corruption charges. The paper has also learned that Arsen Gharibjanyan, chief specialist of the ministry's technical department – also behind bars for reportedly assisting Khachatryan in receiving 5 million drams in bribe – has told investigators that Sergey Hayrapetov had threatened him and had beaten him up to force him to testify against Khachatryan. Moreover, according to Zhoghovurd, the beating occurred in the headquarters of the defense ministry's military police administration.