Epress.am News from Armenia
Republic of Armenia citizen Garik Dadayan was arrested by the National Security Service (NSS) in the Republic of Armenia (RA) this year in April on suspicion of having a connection with the act of selling highly enriched uranium (HEU) by Armenian nationals in Georgia. Currently, a criminal case under Article 215 Section 2 of Armenia’s Criminal Code (smuggling radioactive materials) has been launched against Dadayan, according to a news release by the RA NSS.
As previously reported by Epress.am, 18 grams of HEU was smuggled by train from Armenia to Georgia in a lead-lined cigarette packet in March. The two men involved in transporting the substance were arrested in April, but the details of the operation were not known until Sunday when it was disclosed that two Armenian nationals — Sumbat Tonoyan, 63, a former dairy factory owner, and Hrant Ohanyan, 59, a retired nuclear physicist from Yerevan Physics Institute — were implicated in the smuggling case. Both men have pleaded guilty.
The RA National Security Service notes that in the process of uncovering the case, Armenia’s and Georgia’s special services worked in close cooperation.