YEREVAN. – The Civilitas Foundation founder, former FM, and Prosperous Armenia Party MP Vartan Oskanian issued a statement on his Facebook account.

“Just now, the [Armenian] Parliament removed my parliamentary immunity. [And] We learned virtually at the same time that in neighboring Georgia the country’s President Mikheil Saakashvili accepted his party’s defeat in yesterday’s [Monday] parliamentary elections.

In actual fact, there is already a political balance in Georgia. The President is from one [political] party, [whereas] the legislative and the government will soon be in the hands of another party. With this, Georgia went another ten steps ahead of us in politics as well.

We had a chance to be the first in the region in this regard during the past parliamentary elections. But this did not work out because the ringleaders of the ruling party did not have that foresight. The elections were rigged and today we have what we have. Had there been that balance, there would not have been such injustice in our parliament today. That injustice is not toward me; it is generally toward the destiny of our country,” Vartan Oskanian’s statement reads in particular.        

As Armenian News-NEWS.am informed earlier, the National Assembly on Tuesday voted—by 64 ballots for, six against, and with one invalid vote—in favor of Prosecutor General’s petition to include Vartan Oskanian as a defendant in a criminal lawsuit. A total of 71 MPs participated in the voting.

To note, on May 25 the National Security Service (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 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. In his turn, Vartan Oskanian considers the charges to be politically motivated.

The Civilitas Foundation was founded in 2008 by Vartan Oskanian. After joining Prosperous Armenia Party ahead of the May 6 parliamentary elections, however, Oskanian gave up his post as the Foundation Chairman.