Armenia brings charges of official negligence against two former high-ranking military officials

New charges have been brought against two former high-ranking military officials, Movses Hakobyan, Deputy Defence Minister, and Armen Harutyunyan, former Head of the Missile Troops and Artillery Department of the Armed Forces. They are accused of official negligence connected to the supply of ‘unusable’ military equipment from Russia worth ֏4.3 billion ($11 million) nine years ago.

In addition, the Prosecutor General’s Office is demanding to confiscate ֏4.5 billion ($12 million) from the two generals.

The office announced on Tuesday evening that the case has been sent to the court.

They also provided the details of the case to Public TV, according to which the agreement was signed on 21 July 2016 between the Armenian Defence Ministry and the Russian Rosoboronexport company for the purchase of 15 Aistenok electronically-scanning radar systems.

The latter is 'the sole state-owned intermediary in Russia for exporting and importing the entire range of military and dual-use products, [...] in the field of military-technical cooperation with foreign countries’.

From the Armenian side, the agreement was signed by Hakobyan, who was the Head of the Material and Technical Support Department of the Armenian Armed Forces at the time, as well as the Deputy Defence Minister.

According to public prosecutor Karen Karapetyan, Hakobyan ‘did not designate a responsible unit’ that would receive the radar systems. In addition to that, the signed contract did not include testing the purchased equipment under ‘practical, combat fire conditions’ to determine its condition.

The radar systems were supplied to the relevant military units in Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh in 2017, and failed to ‘fulfill the tasks set before them in practical conditions’, Karapetyan told Public TV.

Following their delivery, specialists were invited from Russia in 2018 ‘to eliminate the shortcomings’. However, Karapetyan said the work reportedly was carried out ‘incompletely’.

Harutyunyan, serving as the Head of the Missile Troops and Artillery Department, ‘did not check whether they were repaired or not, and whether they were suitable for use or not’, Karapetyan said.

During the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War in 2020, according to the prosecutors, the radar system proved to be ‘not suitable for use and it was decided to remove them from use’.

Both Hakobyan and Harutyunyan claim their innocence. A ban on leaving the country was imposed on both, while the court also set Hakobyan’s bail at ֏10 million ($26,000).