Fugitive ex-officials will not avoid responsibility, says Pashinyan

YEREVAN, APRIL 26, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan says indicted fugitive former officials cannot avoid responsibility.

The PM was speaking to reporters when asked about fugitive ex-minister Aram Harutyunyan and fugitive ex-chief bailiff Mihran Poghosyan, both of whom are abroad.

“They have left Armenia by using their immunity. As long as he wasn’t stripped of parliamentary immunity no one had any tools against him. If they were to be arrested while they had immunity everyone would say – what about the law? But where would they flee, this is a small world,” Pashinyan said.

Aram Harutyunyan is a former Republican lawmaker and former Minister of Nature Protection who is charged with money laundering and bribery since December 2018.

Mihran Poghosyan is also a former lawmaker, and former Director of the Service of Mandatory Execution of Judicial Acts, an agency under the Justice Ministry. He was arrested by Russian authorities on an Armenian arrest warrant. Armenia has requested Russia to extradite him, but the latter has requested Russia to grant him asylum.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan