It is more than four months that the first Ambassador of Armenia to the UN, former FM, former head of ANM board Alexander Arzumanyan is under arrest. The group consisting of national security service officers in charge of investigating this case has two main goals. First, they have to prove that Arzumanyan has been involved in money loundery. Second, by proving the above said to prove that this oppositional politician, who has good standing and experience is not a political prisoner.
The investigation process is confidential, however, it is known that Arzumanyan’s friend Alexander Aghazaryan has announced that the money mentioned in the case was sent to Arzumanyan by him as assistance and that the money he has sent is legal. If this is considered to be money laundry, most of the citizens of Armenia have to be arrested since it is not a secret that a significant part of people living in our country are able to survive due to the money assistance they are receiving from their relatives working overseas.
It is not a secret also that most of our citizens overseas are not occupied with “legal” businesses. The media has covered many cases witnessing about larceny and other machinations with credit cards, as well as about extortion on the part of such people. However, many citizens, who receive money don’t even suspect that a part of the money they have received has been obtained “illegally”. They have to prove the unprovable here too.
However, the police does not interfere with the lives of those citizens not due to the fact that they are kind to those needy people, but due to the fact that in case of investigating such cases it is very important on the part of the passive party, i.e. the recipient to know where that money comes from. In a word, if someone presents me stolen watches, it does not mean yet that I am a thief, thus it is necessary to prove that upon receiving the mentioned gift I knew that it had been stolen.
It is a very hard investigation work to prove that the money laundered has been got from illegal sources; they have to collect documents, testimonies and proving facts, which our police cannot do. They are used to solving problems with guns and intimidation as they did with Zhirayr Sefilyan, or getting testimonies with illegal actions as they usually do with many citizens.
As far as I know, they didn’t find any weapons in Arzumanyan’s apartment when checking-up. As for the “suspected”, he asked for confrontation with Levon Markos, whose alleged illegal money he has laundered. This is out of the competence not only of the investigators, but also of the authorities since Levon Markos, who is under search by the Armenian authorities, is free in Moscow and is in periodic contact with Russian top officials and anyone may meet him at any time, besides the Armenian police.
Arzumanyan’s lawyer, Hovik Arsenyan has said in his interview given to “Armenian Time” newspaper that the NSS have already informed him and Arzumanyan that they are going to apply to the first instance court of Kentron and Nork-Marash communities with a petition to prolong the term of arrest for more two months. The lawyer believes that the judges will escape from this case and one of them will appear in a bad situation, but I think that the court will not refuse this petition and no one will appear in a bad situation.
At least the court does not have to prove anything. The only thing that the court may prove is that the ones ordering this case and the ones doing this order are not capable to do anything. Why should a judge injure the interests of the investigators or, vice versa, why should he/she give place to their petition by harming his/her own career?
Alexander Arzumanyan’s friends, followers and active people want to see him free; however, I think that the ones that want to see him free most are the national security officers, who have appeared in a fool situation. The more it becomes difficult to arrange the case concerning money laundry, the more it becomes difficult to prove that Arzumanyan is not a political prisoner. Also, the time works against the national security officers, who are trying to prove two unprovable things. The presidential elections are approaching, and it is becoming more evident that Arzumanyan is a political prisoner.