Ex-official`s lawyers claim motives for prosecution

ArmInfo.  A clearly unfounded and illegal criminal prosecution is being carried out against the former Chairman of the State Revenue Committee (SRC) of the Republic of  Armenia Vardan Harutyunyan. This is stated in the statement of his  lawyers.

On August 8, Harutyunyan was arrested for 2 months. The  Anti-Corruption Committee stated that he is accused of illegal  entrepreneurial, anti-competitive activities and money laundering.

The lawyers recalled that back in 2018, the case against Norfolk  Consulting LLC was terminated, not canceled, and entered into legal  force by the investigator's decision, and therefore it is  inadmissible to "revive" the already assessed evidence to initiate a  new criminal case, bring charges against Vardan Harutyunyan and take  him into custody.

<We especially emphasize that as a result of a large-scale and  comprehensive investigation conducted in 2018 on these cases, any  connection between Vardan Harutyunyan and Norfolk Consulting LLC was  refuted, as well as the general case and materials on the basis of  which the investigator and prosecutor made the decision to terminate  the criminal case, which entered into legal force. However, 7 years  later, the same factual data and the same evidence are presented with  the opposite interpretation, grossly violating the <principle of a  retrial> (non bis in idem). This not only grossly violates the  fundamental principles of law and fair trial, but also establishes a  new, dangerous standard of legal nihilism, the consequences of which  are dangerous for the entire legal system>, they said.

The lawyers are convinced that there are no grounds for Arutyunyan's  arrest, since the assertion about the risks of influencing the course  of the investigation seven years later is simply absurd from a legal  point of view.

"After seven years, there can be no risk, let alone an increase to  such an extent that the most extreme measure of restraint can be  applied. We clearly state that this is not justice, but a deliberate  and gross distortion of procedural norms, the only goal of which is  to keep our client, Vardan Harutyunyan, in custody for as long as  possible at any cost. Vardan Harutyunyan has already publicly  expressed his opinion on the true goals of this process, according to  which he is being <punished> for an honest, principled and  straightforward position>, the lawyers said.

They reported that an appeal against the court's decision is being  prepared, which will be filed in the coming days.

We recall that on May 25, 2018, the National Security Service of  Armenia announced that, as part of its activities aimed at combating  corruption and economic crimes, it had uncovered a criminal scheme.   According to the NSS of the Republic of Armenia, a large company,  Norfolk Consulting, operating in Armenia, the customs the declarant  providing customs services maliciously evaded paying taxes, duties  and other mandatory payments in especially large amounts. The company  failed to pay about $7 million to the state budget. Based on this  fact, the Investigative Department of the National Security Service  opened a criminal case under Part 2 of Article 205 ("Evasion of  taxes, duties or other mandatory payments") and Part 2 of Article 308  ("Abuse of office, which through negligence entailed grave  consequences") of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Armenia. The  Norfolk Consulting company was then associated with the former Prime  Minister of Armenia Karen Karapetyan. In July of the same year, it  was reported that Norfolk Consulting LLC, as of July 17, had paid  721.4 million drams out of a total amount of $7 million to the state  budget.