YEREVAN. – Zhoghovurd newspaper of Armenia writes: According to the information of Zhoghovurd daily, the other day there was an internal discussion in the law enforcement system that NA [(National Assembly)] [ruling] CC [(Civil Contract Party) member] MP, former Minister of Health Arsen Torosyan should be called to the Anti-Corruption Committee for questioning.

It means that the investigative body is going to send a notice to Arsen Torosyan, but so far the law enforcement system has made an assessment that the time to charge him is not yet ripe.

Noteworthy circumstances have already emerged in the criminal case. According to the information we received, these days the Anti-Corruption Committee is actively calling the employees of the [Surb] Grigor Lusavorich Medical Center for questioning. And what criminal proceedings are we talking about? The thing is that in June of this year, the Anti-Corruption Committee launched a criminal case to find out whether public funds were spent effectively [in Armenia] in 2020, during the covid pandemic.

The criminal case has been launched under several [Criminal Code] articles: embezzlement, abuse of official powers, official forgery. So far, there are no suspects or accused. The reason for launching the criminal case was the report published by the Audit Chamber which, after studying the activities of the Ministry of Health in 2020—the most heated period of covid—concluded: the funds allocated for the fight against the pandemic were not spent purposefully and efficiently. In 2020, the position of Minister of Health was held by infamous Arsen Torosyan, who is now an MP of the ruling power, a member of the CC board.

And realizing what's coming to him, Torosyan is friends with Sasun Khachatryan, the head of the Anti-Corruption Committee, through the mediation of NA CC MP Heriknaz Tigranyan. The press wrote about this. Perhaps Torosyan aims to achieve that the embezzlements carried out within the framework of the fight against covid [in Armenia] are not exposed in full.