Leader of the Prosperous Armenia Party Gagik Tsarukyan can be deprived of parliamentary immunity in the near future, the chairperson of Standing Committee on Protection of Human Rights, PAP deputy Naira Zohrabyan said in a statement posted on her Facebook page.
According to her, Prosecutor General Artur Davtyan will make a motion at the National Assembly tomorrow to deprive leader Tsarukyan of parliamentary immunity. After which he can be prosecuted in criminal cases, Zohrabyan added.
Adviser to the Prosecutor General Gor Abrahamyan, in turn, said that there is no and cannot be a political decision to apply to the National Assembly to strip MP Gagik Tsarukyan of his parliamentary immunity. "It is exclusively legal, and is conditioned only by the facts obtained, sufficient evidence," he said.
"At the moment, an investigation is underway into specific criminal cases. The court proceedings will be decided on the course of that, and based on the fact that the evidence obtained is sufficient," Abrahamyan added.
The National Security Service said a group of Prosperous Armenia Party senior members handed out hundreds of millions of drams as vote bribes during the 2017 parliamentary election campaign.
The National Security Service also said it has revealed two cases of illegal entrepreneurial activity by companies controlled by Tsarukyan that cost the state more than 29 billion drams ($60 million) in damage.
Yesterday, the Armenian police detained more than 250 people who were protesting against the detention of Gagik Tsarukyan.
