Aghvan Hovsepyan defends interests of Civilitas?
During today's parliament meeting, Nikol Pashinyan, a lawmaker from the opposition Armenian National Congress (HAK), asked Prosecutor General Aghvan Hovsepyan whether they had received any complaints that lawmaker Vartan Oskanian had appropriated money.
In reply, Mr Hovsepyan said in some cases charges are filed without appeal and cited the example of physical assault.
After Pashinyan repeated the question, the prosecutor general said in the given case the victim is the Civilitas Foundation and they are trying to protect the property interests of the Foundation.
"However, the Foundation had not submitted any appeal," was Pashinyan's remark.
"It does not matter whether [Civilitas Director] Salpi Ghazarian and Vartan Oskanian are on good relations or not," said Mr Hovsepyan.
The opposition lawmaker further observed that similar charges could be instituted against Hovsepyan: Oskanian's name could be changed by Hovsepyan's name in the petition and the mishandled money of about $2 million could be changed by a Volkswagen driven by the prosecutor general, which, as the press writes, belongs to someone else.
Aghvan Hovsepyan advised Pashinyan to apply to law enforcement agencies instead of making inquiries from him. For his part, Pashinyan said he would see to it that Hovsepyan resigned in order not to inhibit the preliminary investigation.
The National Assembly is hearing on Monday Aghvan Hovsepyan's petition to rescind Oskanian’s immunity.
