As the U.S. law stands, the arrested members of Armenian criminal network, U.S. citizens, will be convicted in the United States, Armenian Justice Minister Gevorg Danielyan stated in the interview with RFE/RL.

The Armenian side has not yet provided information on the number of Armenian citizens among the arrested Armenians, charged with defrauding Medicare out of $163 million. “According to the information at our disposal they do not constitute a high percentage,” Danielyan said, stressing a criminal is sentenced in the country, where the crime was committed.

According to Danielyan, Armenia may also initiate a criminal prosecution of the Armenian criminal network if the group members were arrested in Armenia. “If the criminals and their associates were in Armenia, we will not be obliged to surrender them. We would just demand the part of the criminal case under our jurisdiction and would conduct the investigation ourselves,” the Minister noted.

As reported previously, the Prosecutor General’s Office of Armenia has not received any official information or requests for legal assistance from U.S. law-enforcers in connection with the arrest of Armenian citizens on suspicion of crimes,” said Sona Truzyan, Press Secretary of the RA Prosecutor General. She pointed out that the RA Prosecutor General’s Office is ready to cooperate with U.S. law-enforcement in case it receives a request for legal assistance.