YEREVAN. – Germany’s newly-appointed Ambassador to Armenia, Reiner Morell, intends to carefully follow the case concerning The Civilitas Foundation founder, former FM, and Prosperous Armenia Party MP Vartan Oskanian. The Ambassador himself stated this during a press conference on Wednesday.  

The diplomat noted that he is informed of this case and that the Prosecutor General’s Office must find out whether or not Oskanian had made a mistake. But at the same he recalled the principle of “presumption of innocence.” “Vartan Oskanian must be able to present his arguments and explanations,” the Ambassador noted. 

Morell also noted that the ensuing reaction is definitely linked with the person of Oskanian, since he still is “an important person within the society.”   

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.