YEREVAN. – Starting from now on, I am discontinuing Manvel Grigoryan’s [legal] defense on the charge of his appropriating the food of the soldier, or of the freedom fighter, because of such a charge being groundless slander.

Arsen Mkrtchyan, the attorney of Armenia’s ex-MP and Yerkrapah (Defender of the Land) Volunteer Union (YVU) Board ex-Chairman, retired General Manvel Grigoryan, wrote the aforesaid on Facebook.

Also, Mkrtchyan told Armenian News-NEWS.am that he had assumed Grigoryan’s legal defense on his own initiative and as an YVU member, and that it was important to him to find out whether Grigoryan actually had anything to do with the charge against him in connection with appropriation of soldiers’ food.

“The preliminary investigation is over, and I can confidently announce that Manvel Grigoryan has nothing to do with the appropriation of the soldier’s food,” the attorney said, in particular. “As a freedom fighter, I no longer have anything to do on this part [of the charges that are brought against Grigoryan]. [But] in the future, I might [still] defend Manvel Grigoryan’s rights at court.”

Grigoryan is in custody. He is charged with illegal possession of arms, tax evasion, and embezzlement and appropriation of the budget funds. In particular, the charge on appropriation is in connection with the aid that was sent during the days of the four-day war in Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh), in April 2016.