Armenia arrests defence official who issued draft deferments for bribes

The Armenian Investigation Committee announced the disclosure of a criminal group that was illegally granting conscripts military deferments for bribes.

Caliber.Az reports citing Armenian media that the leader of the group, the head of the Recruitment and Mobilisation Department of the Ministry of Defence V.M., was arrested.

"During the investigation carried out by the Department for Investigation of Especially Important Cases of the Main Military Investigation Bureau of the Investigative Committee of Armenia together with the Main Division of Military Counterintelligence of the National Security Service the full chain of actions of criminal group members was revealed. A number of investigative measures were taken, including searches of more than a dozen addresses.

It turned out that V.M. reached an agreement with A.M., the director of a private medical centre, through which false diagnoses were prepared for conscripts who offered bribes for deferment of service. All in all, V.M. demanded and received bribes in the amount of $25,000 each from eight conscripts, some of which (from $2 to $3,000) were given to A.M.

Six persons are involved in the case, two of whom have been arrested. The circumstances of the case are being clarified," the report said.