The Administrative Court of the Republic of Armenia today continued the subsequent trial over the case of Vachagan Ghazaryan vs the Commission on Ethics of High-Ranking Officials.

The trial over the case of head of security of third President Serzh Sargsyan, Vachagan Ghazaryan vs the Commission on Ethics of High-Ranking Officials has been going on for a couple of months now. Ghazaryan has appealed to the Administrative Court to bind the Commission to eliminate his and his wife Ruzanna Beglaryan’s annual asset declarations in 2017 and declaration for termination of office in 2018.

According to the plaintiff, Vachagan Ghazaryan is not an official with the duty to submit a declaration in accordance with part 1 of Article 32 of the Law of the Republic of Armenia “On public service” of 2001 and after April 9, 2018 since the deputy head of the Patrol Sentry Service ceased to be an official following the entry into force of the amendments to the Constitution.

Vachagan Ghazaryan was also present at the trial today. The plaintiff presented to the court evidence that is essential for the case, including the position of the Ombudsman stated in the decision of the Constitutional Court of April 16. According to the Ombudsman, the change of scope of persons with the duty to submit an asset declaration also leads to the change of the subject of the given corpus delicti, which entails decriminalization of an act for certain officials.

As a result of proceedings instituted by the Commission on Ethics of High-Ranking Officials of Armenia, 219 officials have been subjected to the “warning” administrative penalty, 68 have been fined, the case proceedings have been terminated for 122 officials, etc.

Vachagan Ghazaryan is charged with withholding — in his asset declaration submitted to the Commission on Ethics of High-Ranking Officials of Armenia — the information on the true amount of his funds, as well as for getting enriched illicitly. The investigation had revealed that Vachagan Ghazaryan had not declared AMD 460 million, $1,272,900, €218,000 in his asset declarations for 2017 and 2018.