YEREVAN. – During his address at Armenia’s National Assembly (NA), The Civilitas Foundation founder, former FM, and Prosperous Armenia Party MP Vartan Oskanian—whose parliamentary immunity is now removed and who will become a defendant in the Civilitas case—pointed his finger at the NA majority and said: “What you do to me today, the same will be done to you tomorrow,” Zhamanak daily reports.    

“Yesterday [Tuesday] we asked NA Speaker Hovik Abrahamyan as to whether he is not concerned that one day a case might be opened against him. ‘I have imagined myself in worse places over the course of time,’ Abrahamyan sad sincerely, [but] without elaborating.    

‘That is to say, more severe cases could be opened against you because you had been an official for such long time?’, we asked Abrahamyan. ‘Don’t speak in the past [tense]! I still am an official; your wishes will not come true,’ he stated,” Zhamanak writes.      

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.