Karabakh clan members put on international wanted list

The new Armenian authorities put the country's former Defense Minister Mikael Harutyunyan on the international wanted list, police chief Valery Osipyan said today at the news conference.

"Harutyunyan was put on the international wanted list," RIA Novosti cited Osipyan as saying.

Earlier, chief of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) Yuri Khachaturov was charged with overthrowing Armenia's constitutional order amid a probe into Yerevan's 2008 postelection crackdown, but was released on bail later. The SIS leveled the same charges against former President Robert Kocharian, but later he was also released. The ruling of the Armenian Court of Appeals was based on the presidential immunity. 

Former Armenian president Serzh Sargsyan’s nephew Narek Sargsyan was also put on the international wanted list today. He is accused of committing crimes stemming from  points 1, 2 and 7 of the second part of Article 131 of the Criminal Code of Armenia (kidnapping committed by a group of persons by prior conspiracy with the use of violence dangerous to life or health, or threats to use violence and for mercenary motives.

Earlier, Armenian court issued arrest warrant for ex-president's brother Levon Sargsyan and his daughter. In addition, the head of the Special Investigation Service (SIS), Sasun Khachatryan, said that Sargsyan will be interrogated regarding the March 1 case.

Ex-mayor of Yerevan Vahagn Khachatryan, speaking with Vestnik Kavkaza, noted that the struggle of Nikol Pashinyan's team against former corrupt officials and the investigation of March 1, 2008 crimes is being hampered by the Karabakh clan's influence in the judicial branch.

"In general, the new authorities' actions with regard to the investigation of the March 1, 2008 case and corruption, are quite satisfactory in my opinion. But their actions are resisted by the former authorities staying in parliament. The big problem for Armenia in this struggle is that members of the judiciary were appointed by the former authorities and continue to support them," he pointed out.

"If the judiciary acted in accordance with the law, the corruption struggle and the March 1 cases, would probably approached the final in the form of sentences. Now the new executive power headed by Nikol Pashinyan is trying to remove this obstacle," Vahagn Khachatryan said.

"I think that Pashinyan's team has developed a strategy to cope with it, and now they are carrying out tactical steps, such as putting on the international wanted list, which should reveal all the people guilty of killing 10 people on March 1, 2008. I I think that, in the end, the investigation will reach both Serzh Sargsyan and other people involved in these crimes," the former mayor of Yerevan concluded.

Robert Kocharyan completed his second term as Armenian president on February 2008. Kocharyan's Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan had Kocharyan's backing for his candidacy as the next president. The election was held on February 19, 2008 and Sargsyan won the election with 52% of the vote, with Ter-Petrosyan in second place with 22% of the vote. The protests initiated by Ter-Petrosyan's supporters began in the country on 20 February 20. On March 1-2, 10 people were killed and more than 200 injured in overnight clashes between police and opposition protesters in Yerevan.