Oskanian’s case: Armenia's return to repression?

Susanna Petrosyan, Yerevan. Exclusively to VK

The investigation department of the National Security Service of Armenia accused the former foreign minister of Armenia Vardan Oskanian of grounds of the 179th article (Conversion and Squandering) and the 190th article of the Criminal Code (Legalization of incomes gained illegally).

On October 2 the Armenian parliament satisfied a motion of the general prosecutor on rescinding the parliamentary immunity of the member of Prosperous Armenia, the former foreign minister, the founder of the fund Civilitas, Vardan Oskanian. The decision was made according to the law On Regulations of the National Assembly of Armenia which requires giving an agreement on rescinding the parliamentary immunity of a PM, his arrest, and so on.

71 PMs participated in secret voting. 64 PMs voted “for”, six voted “against”, one ballot was recognized invalid. Only representatives of the fraction of the ruling coalition – Republican Party of Armenia and the party Country of Law – and 1-2 independent PMs took part in the voting.

60 PMs didn’t participate in the voting. The secretary of Prosperous Armenia, Naira Zograbian, said that PA intended to boycott the voting. She called her colleagues who also stand against the motion of the general prosecutor for supporting the boycott in favor of prevention legitimization of political repression against Oskanian. PA’s boycott (36 people) was supported by opposition fractions – Armenian National Congress (7 PMs), Dashnaktsutyun and Heritage (each has 5 PMs).

Earlier, the National Security Service of Armenia initiated a criminal case into legalization of incomes gained illegally by the Civilitaas Fund, which was founded by Oskanian in 2008. For example, the investigation provides an instance of obtaining money from the sale of a 100% share ($2 million) of Huntsman Building Products Ltd., which belonged to the American corporations Polymer Materials and Huntsman International. The general prosecutor stated that the inappropriate registration of documents and non-fulfillment of tax duties led to the fact that $1.135 thousand from the sum were not spent on charity purposes, even though it was required. According to the investigation, this sum was transferred to private accounts of Oskanian and the member of the fund’s council Tigran Karapetian.

The general prosecutor states that absence of the parliamentary immunity doesn’t mean for Oskanian absence of freedom for traveling and doesn’t restrict his participation in the parliament’s work. The investigation on Civilitas’s case continues, and the motion aims at completeness of the investigation. The law-enforcement agencies defense interests of the well-known charity provider Huntsman and interests of the fund itself. “Innocence of Vardan Oskanian will be proved,” the general prosecutor is sured.

The fraction of Prosperous Armenia presented to the colleagues a packet of documents, according to which Huntsman and others have no claims to the fund, its work is transparent and is provided legally. The party Prosperous Armenia stated that the motion of the general prosecutor on involvement of Oskanian as a defendant is a political repression aimed at Oskanian and PA in general. Oskanian said: “If the target of the process is prevention me from political activities, stopping my criticism of the authorities’ failing policy in all spheres, then I can say they miscalculated the situation.”

Representatives of the ANC and Dashnaktsutyun are sure that the initiation of the criminal case is a political order. “Everything in the country, including the political field, is controlled by the power system. It is an attempt to make Oskanian shut up. If we knew that the power is ready to struggle against all corruption phenomena by these means, it would probably be a fair verdict. But it is not so,” the representative of ANC, Lyudmila Sarkisian, stated.

“Prosperous Armenia demonstrates after the parliamentary elections that it has no intention to play the president and RPA’s game. All representatives of PA left top positions in the government, ministers, deputy ministers, governors resigned. Prosperous Armenia began the process of separation from the power. The presidential elections are coming, according to the official data, PA got 450 thousand votes in the parliamentary elections. PA is a basic political force which has a serious financial and certain information resources which might compete with the Republican Party of Armenia and its leader, President Serge Sargsyan,” the political observer of the information and analysis center Noian Tapan, David Petrosian.

The other question is whether the political order will achieve its target or not. Considering the recent statement of the former aide of the president Robert Kocharian, Garnik Isagulian, on a secret organization which has the detailed information on the Armenian elite, further interesting internal political developments are possible. These actions of the authorities leads to the fact that PA, which has been thought to be the moderate opposition, is gaining elements of the radical opposition.