Armenian News - NEWS.am presents a daily digest of Armenia-related top news as of 04.02.2020:

·       Former President of the Football Federation of Armenia and ex MP Ruben Hayrapetyan was apprehended Tuesday on suspicion of illegal possession of weapons and ammunition, police reported.

According to his attorney Amram Makinyan, Hayrapetyan was interviewed under the criminal case of misuse by the Football Federation of Armenia yesterday.

The lawyer recalled that journalists have already told him that the Investigative Committee has officially confirmed that the act of apprehension has nothing to do with the criminal case regarding the Football Federation of Armenia.

·       Armenian activists Adekvad congregation held a protest near the Armenian parliament’s building. They learned from open sources that Armenian President and UK citizen Armen Sarkissian has a share in Azerbaijan's natural gas and oil infrastructures.

According to the member Artur Danielyan, they want to meet with the president to discuss the issue of his abandoning those infrastructures.

The Adekvad members decided to bring the barrels of oil they had brought closer to the presidential residence, but the police disallowed.

The protesters wrote a letter to President Armen Sarkissian expressing hope that he would agree to meet with them.

Karabakh army soldier Artur Dalakyan (born in 2000) sustained a minor gunshot wound at a military unit located in a southwesterly direction. According to preliminary information, as a result of violation of gun-use rules. An investigation is underway to find out the details of the incident.

·       Venice Commission president Gianni Buquicchio expressed his concern in a statement on Monday over the events surrounding the Constitutional Court in Armenia, while sharing the concerns of the PACE co-rapporteurs.

He recalled the recommendations made in the opinion of the Venice Commission adopted in October 2019 that any early retirement scheme at the CC has to remain truly voluntary, exclude any undue political or personal pressure on the judges concerned and must be designed not to influence the outcome of pending cases.

However, “recent public statements and acts do not meet these criteria and will not be conducive to deescalating the situation,” he said.

Buquicchio has urged all the sides in Armenia to exercise restraint, mutual respect and constructive institutional co-operation.

·       Armenian ex-Prosecutor General Gevorg Kostanyan said he is ready to return to Armenia and publicly answer all the questions of the investigative body regarding the criminal case on March 1, 2008, as he had become an accused on charges of abuse of power and fraud.

On March, 2008 eight demonstrators and two servicemen of the internal troops were killed in the clashes during the protests.

Thus, according to him, if the Armenian authorities are interested in solving the March 1 case, he expects a positive response.

Meanwhile, Armenia’s special investigative service responded to his statement.

According to it, it is puzzling that Gevorg Kostanyan comes up with this proposal. The investigators added that he had already had a chance to provide his assistance during an interrogation and urged Kostanyan to come back and appear before the investigators. 

·       The criminal case against the Armenian third president, Serzh Sargsyan and others, has been taken into proceedings by Yerevan court of general jurisdiction.

Sargsyan is accused of facilitating the appropriation or embezzlement on an especially large scale.

Judge Vahe Misakyan will consider the case.

The accused in the case also include ex-agriculture minister Sergo Karapetyan, Flash company owner Barsegh Beglaryan, ex-agriculture deputy minister Samvel Galstyan, former head of the department of the same ministry Gevorg Harutyunyan. 

According to the investigation, as a result of fraud with fuel, the interests of the state suffered serious damage.

·       The death toll of 2019-nCoV coronavirus reached 427, with 20 629 infected, of which 2790 (14%) were in critical condition.

The first death from a virus in Hong Kong was also confirmed: the deceased is a 39-year-old man, while yesterday, the first death outside China had been recorded in Philippines.

Meanwhile, what comes to Armenian citizens infected in China, the Armenian Embassy China has not received any information in this regard, said Mnatsakan Safaryan, Head of the North-East Asia Division of the Armenian MFA.

According to him, as of February 3, about 600 Armenian citizens responded to the information spread by the Armenian Embassy in China on the move to Armenia. They data were registered by the Armenian Embassy.