The events connected with the “Royal-Armenia” company go to show how the governmental/functionary system punished anyone who refuses to dance to somebody’s tune.
Owner of “Royal-Armenia” Tony el Labaki, attorneys Gevorg Minasyan and Ashot Sargsyan and National Assembly Deputy Tatul Manaseryan held a press conference on Monday on the case brought up against directors of the company Gagik Hakobyan and Aram Ghazaryan. The latter are charged with five different Criminal code articles, including article 178 (fraud), 325 (falsification of documents), 215 (smuggling), 190 (money-laundering) and 205 (evasion of paying taxes). Hakobyan and Ghazaryan have been in jail for over a year now. The preliminary investigation is over and the court trial took place on Wednesday.
As the company’s attorney Gevorg Minasyan mentioned, neither Hakobyan nor Ghazaryan have ever been involved in politics, however the issue concerning “Royal Armenia” has been politicized. If we try to summarize this entangled story, it all started when “Royal-Armenia” publicly announced its complaints about the absurd, high fixed customs prices for the company’s imports. During one of the press conferences, Hakobyan accused the State Customs Committee (SCC) of forcing the company to give bribes. Before that, after and during that time, “Royal-Armenia” and the SCC were at it on and off, after which company directors Gagik Hakobyan and Aram Ghazaryan were sentenced to jail. The basis of the accusations was the testimonies of “Federal Invest Group” (FIG) representative from the U.S. Vache Petrosyan.
FIG has supplied “Royal-Armenia” with coffee from 1999-2004. According to the press conference speakers, the accusations are false and inaccurate. For example, T. Manaseryan mentioned that although he is not a criminal law specialist, however even he knows that the accusations don’t correspond to the documents. “There are paradoxes in the case,” said the deputy, clarifying that FIG doesn’t function as a company and its balance is zero; in other words, it has no business with any other company. Meanwhile, during the investigation it “turned out” that “Royal-Armenia” owes FIG 164,000 dollars, then that number turned into 380,000, then 1 million and finally 2 million dollars.
Tatul Manaseryan, who recently paid a visit to Hakobyan in jail, also informed that Hakobyan’s financial status is difficult. According to him, “the false case is aimed to physically eliminate people”. The prisoners’ attorney Ashot Sargsyan stated that the case was brought up feebly. For example, there were always talks about original stamps, but it turns out that the case solely consists of the copies of those stamps, or for example, it is stated in the case that “Royal-Armenia” has smuggled 8 billion 150 million drams worth of products to Armenia (approximately 16 million dollars), while in the same case it is stated that the “FIG” company has only supplied 5 million dollars worth of products to “Royal-Armenia”. A. Sargsyan looks at this as cynicism. “They told the investigator to write a lot and he got inspired”.
All speakers mentioned that all this has unleashed the State Customs Committee. T. Manaseryan drew attention towards the fact that this is the first time when a person refuses to give bribe and as a result, finds himself in this kind of situation. A. Sargsyan compared investigator Marukyan with a bull that has seen a red cloth; he has “received the offer and forgotten about everything else.” G. Minasyan had this to say about the investigator: “If there are some people who are considered human beings, then I want to fill out an application to stop being called a human being”.
Who does this benefit? Who gives the order? A. Sargsyan advised looking for the people responsible among “Royal-Armenia’s” competitors; then he went a little deeper than that and hinted that deputy head of the SCC Gagik Khachatryan does business in the coffee market. It turns out that G. Khachatryan is one of the strongest people in the republic who not only have an influence on the customs field, but also the National Security and judicial system. The most interesting thing is that according to T. Manaseryan, the president of Armenia isn’t clued in on the details of this case. So, based on what Manaseryan is saying, they provide the president with wrong information and present the situation however they see fit. Let’s not forget to mention, however, that before all this, “Royal-Armenia” had held three press conferences and had once sent an open letter to the Armenian President, the Prosecutor General, head of the National Security Service and the U.S. Ambassador to Armenia. In addition, mass media have often referred to this issue. After all this, it’s amazing to be uninformed. Not wanting to be informed is, as Sargsyan stated, a different story. After all, the authorities care more about hearing good news, such as the fact that Armenia places 32nd in the world with its free economy. Who cares if they can formally punish people by not giving bribes and get off easy by circumventing certain structures? The important thing is the ratings.