The Civilitas Foundation’s founder—and former FM and currently Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP) MP—Vartan Oskanian is in a very good mood because “all these [charges] are groundless.” Oskanian himself stated this to news reporters.   

In his words, On October 1 PAP will give a political assessment to what has transpired. “The charges are truly groundless; we got familiar [with them],” he said.  

To the query as to whether Oskanian could be detained, he noted that this question must be asked to the Prosecutor General, but he is psychologically ready for that.

He is confident that his fellow PAP MPs will express their views.

To note, Armenia’s Prosecutor General Aghvan Hovsepyan submitted a petition to the Parliament Thursday, to obtain NA approval to strip Vartan Oskanian of his parliamentary immunity to include him as a defendant in the criminal lawsuit filed by the Armenian National Security Service (NSS). Also, Prosecutor General’s spokesperson Sona Truzyan claimed that the petition refers solely to include him as a defendant in the lawsuit and not to detain him.

As Armenian News-NEWS.am informed earlier, on May 25 the NSS Department of Investigation filed a criminal lawsuit on charges of money laundering with respect to The Civilitas Foundation.

The NSS Press Center had informed that an investigation is underway in connection with selling the 100-percent shares of the Huntsman Building Products Company for around $ 2 million, but not informing Armenia’s tax authorities about this business deal; not using for charitable purposes $1,135,000 of that amount envisioned for charity; transferring this amount to the bank accounts opened under the names of the Civilitas Foundation’s founder—former FM and currently Prosperous Armenia Party MP—Vartan Oskanian,  and of the Foundation’s Board of Trustees member Tigran Karapetyan; and using some of this amount for private purposes.

In addition, as per the NSS Press Center, The Civilitas Foundation had not presented a report on the $2 million allocated for charitable purposes.