YEREVAN. – The defendants' attorneys have filed several motions at Thursday's court hearing of the criminal case against Armenia’s third President Serzh Sargsyan and Flash fuel company owner Barsegh Beglaryan.

Sargsyan's lawyers submitted two motions to the court. One of them asks to lift his pretrial measure, and the other requests to provide them with all the case materials.

Beglaryan's attorney motioned to lift the pretrial measure of his client.

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

The court will announce its decisions on these motions Friday.

The two other defendants, former Minister of Agriculture Sergo Karapetyan and former Deputy Minister of Agriculture 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.

During the previous court session, the criminal proceedings against Sergo Karapetyan and Samvel Galstyan were dropped.

According to the indictment of this criminal case, being organized by Sargsyan, pushed by Beglaryan, and assisted by Galstyan and Gevorg Harutyunyan—then Head of the Plant Breeding Department of the Ministry of Agriculture—, 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.