Face-to-face interrogation of former Armenian president Serzh Sargsyan and former Agriculture minister Sergo Karapetyan was held by the Special Investigation Service of Armenia.
In early December it was reported that the Special Investigative Service alleged that Sargsyan "organized the embezzlement by a group of officials" of 489 million drams (more than $1 million) in government funds allocated in 2013 to provide subsidized diesel fuel to farmers.
Another criminal case was brought against Barsegh Beglarian, owner of Flash company, for improprieties in government fuel contracts, Sputnik Armenia reported.
The ex-president's defense said, without elaborating on the details, that face-to-face interrogation of Sargsuan was held. The Special Investigation Service of Armenia declined to comment.
The writer, Vesti FM radio station host Armen Gasparyan, speaking with Vestnik Kavkaza, noted that Sargsyan was doomed to have an investigation against him based on economic charges, because it is beneficial for the current authorities and allows it to avoid the opposition's allegations of political persecution.
"First, this falls into the fight against corruption announced by Pashinyan: if the new government has no serious achievements that can be presented as successes of the anti-corruption campaign, it needs to be invented. Therefore, the Sargsyan case was just convenient from this point of view - he is the former president, and his trial has very good media prospects," Armen Gasparyan pointed out.
"In addition, it has been understood within Armenian society that the processes being conducted against the previous government along the political line are beginning to resemble the patterns of 1937. Accordingly, Pashinyan's team now needs to do everything possible to make these reproaches less loud. Therefore, one should expect an investigation Sargsyan on economic charges," the host of Vesti.FM emphasized.
