Generally speaking, it’s wrong to ask why this or that person is not arrested yet. This is what Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan stated in response to questions from citizens live on Facebook today, touching upon a question on why no charge has been brought up against Serzh Sargsyan yet.
“There are dozens of corruption cases in Armenia. Manvel Grigoryan and Robert Kocharyan are under custody, and the former minister of nature protection and the former chief of the Compulsory Enforcement Service are wanted. There are dozens of cases against former high-ranking officials. Neither I nor anyone has set the objective to sentence a person with a particular name or last name, be it Serzh Sargsyan or Robert Kocharyan, but we have said that everyone is equal before the law,” he said.
He recalled that when Manvel Grigoryan was remanded, social media website users said the government was remanding a national hero, but when the truth about Manvel Grigoryan was revealed, nobody ever said anything again.
“I can’t say whether Serzh Sargsyan will be charged or not. I’m neither an investigator nor a prosecutor, but when there will be necessary and sufficient grounds for a charge, there will be no political impediment,” the Prime Minister emphasized.
He also highlighted the fact that there have not been and there will not be any agreements behind closed doors. “I will not do that because this will mean that not only the revolution, but also my life is meaningless. For instance, a criminal case was instituted in relation to the North-South Road Program a couple of months ago, and it is assumed that there are officials involved in the case. There are still no such officials because the case is extensive, and I have demanded that the case be investigated by law.
I tell you there will not be any vendetta, but justice will be served. I’m not content with the process and the results, but there are reasons for that. For instance, when the scenes of the search of the home of Manvel Grigoryan were released, corrupt officials eliminated all that they had in their homes,” Pashinyan declared and asked the people not to suspect him of conspiracies.
