YEREVAN. – The Special Investigation Service (SIS) of Armenia has received the decision of the Prosecutor General's Office to open a criminal case on the basis of a complaint with respect to concealing President Armen Sarkissian's dual citizenship and the materials of this criminal case. This was reported by the SIS press department in response to Armenian News-NEWS.am's inquiry.

To note, 53 lawyers had submitted a crime report to the Prosecutor General in connection with the concealment of President Sarkissian's dual citizenship.

According to the report, in addition to Armenian citizenship, Armen Sarkissian had held UK citizenship for at least ten years, from 2003-2012, and was elected President of Armenia on March 2, 2018, in the case when he did not meet the requirement to be an Armenian citizen only in the last six years.

Regarding the citizenship of President Sarkissian, his chief of staff had pointed to the reference provided by the legislation, and which was submitted to the National Assembly during the presidential election process.

For the presidential election, Sarkissian was issued a certificate of being solely an Armenian citizen for the past six years, and based on information in the police passport and visa department register and Sarkissian's statement in his application that he was not a citizen of another country.

The Prosecutor General's Office had sent this report to the SIS, but the latter had not opened a criminal case in this regard.

But based on the aforesaid complaint, the Prosecutor General's Office overturned the said SIS decision and opened a criminal case under the Criminal Code article on falsifying, selling, or using documents.