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Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has reiterated that recovering allegedly illicitly acquired assets from former presidents Robert Kocharyan and Serzh Sargsyan and businessman Gagik Tsarukyan is a “political objective” that must be pursued and that it stems from the mandate voters gave to his Civil Contract party and the government.
He said that Kocharyan, Sargsyan and Tsarukyan must live on their pensions and other legally earned income, while everything that has been illegally acquired must be returned to Armenia and its people.
“The political objective is the following: when the first of the month approaches, Robert Kocharyan, Gagik Tsarukyan and Serzh Sargsyan should open their phones and see whether their pension has been deposited, because they must live on their pensions and legal income, while whatever they have acquired illegally must be returned to the Republic of Armenia and its people, grain by grain, penny by penny. There is no other option. If this does not happen, it means that a new revolution must take place,” the Prime Minister said at a press briefing when asked on the investigation into Kocharyan.
He elaborated that ahead of the June 7 parliamentary elections in Armenia, he had presented this political objective to the people and the state at the Civil Contract party’s final rally in Yerevan’s Republic Square, attended by 40,000 people, while the people, in turn, had placed it before everyone—the Government, the judicial and law-enforcement system, and all state and local self-government bodies.
Kocharyan faces three counts of abuse of official powers, two counts of receiving a particularly large bribe and four counts of particularly large-scale money laundering.
On August 27, the court granted the motion to place Kocharyan in pre-trial detention.