During today’s court hearing over the criminal case against Armenia’s third President Serzh Sargsyan, Flash fuel company owner Barsegh Beglaryan and former Head of the Plant Breeding Department of the Ministry of Agriculture Gevorg Harutyunyan in the Court of General Jurisdiction of Yerevan, Sargsyan, Beglaryan and Harutyunyan said they don’t accept the charge brought against them.

“I'm not going to plead guilty. I didn’t incite anyone at all. It’s not possible that money was provided to Flash fuel company as subsidization,” Beglaryan said.

As for Harutyunyan, he viewed the charge as groundless and didn’t plead guilty.

According to the indictment of this criminal case, being organized by Sargsyan, pushed by Beglaryan, and assisted by former Deputy Minister of Agriculture Samvel Galstyan and Gevorg Harutyunyan, former Minister of Agriculture Sergo Karapetyan had squandered—from January 25 to February 7, 2013—AMD 489,160,310 of subsidy allocated from the government's reserve fund for the 15,391,765 liters of diesel fuel that was used during the implementation of state assistance programs.

Serzh Sargsyan has been charged under the Criminal Code article on large-scale embezzlement or squandering.

The third president, however, does not accept the charge against him. And his lawyer Amram Makinyan claims that the charge is concocted.

A signature bond not to leave Armenia has been enforced as a pretrial measure against both Serzh Sargsyan and Barsegh Beglaryan.

Sergo Karapetyan and Samvel Galstyan, have died from the coronavirus.

According to media reports, Karapetyan's testimony is at the basis of the charge. Also, he and ex-President Sargsyan had confronted each other along the lines of this criminal case.