Moldova’s Defense Minister Vitalie Marinuta insists “the deal on weapons and ammunition sold to Armenia” is legal.

In the course of parliamentary hearings on Thursday Marinuta refused to comment on statement of Moldova’s Ambassador to Azerbaijan Igor Bodyu. 

Asked whether he supports Ambassador’s position, according to which weapon deal with Armenia was a “stupid mistake”, the Minister replied “no”.  

According to media, Latvian-registered airplane with out of date ammunition arrived in Moldova from Benghazi, Libya.

Defense Ministry of Moldova said IL 76 is an airplane of Armenia’s civil air company and is carrying out work under the contract.  It arrived in Moldova ordered by Latvian company to get cargo under an agreement signed between Moldovan Ministry and the Latvian company.

The airplane departed from Moldova on September 13. Moldovan officials repeatedly said that the weapons were bought by Armenia.

However, Armenia denied the reports saying IL 76 belongs to a civil air company. Spokesperson for Armavia Company Nana Avetisova told Armenian News-NEWS.am that the company never had IL76 aircrafts.

The department of Armenia’s civil aviation also told Armenian News-NEWS.am that the reports are untrue.