Armenia’s Prosecutor General seeks confiscation of $1.7 million from former president, officials

The Prosecutor General’s Office of Armenia has filed a claim seeking the confiscation of 670 million drams (approximately $1.7 million) from former President Robert Kocharyan and several former officials.

According to the Armenian judicial-legal information platform Datalex, this sum was paid by the Armenian government as compensation to victims and families of those killed during the mass unrest on March 1, 2008, Caliber.Az reports, citing Armenian media reports.

The lawsuit has been submitted to the Anti-Corruption Court and will be overseen by Judge Ashkhen Karslyan. The Prosecutor General’s Office demands that Kocharyan, former Vice Speaker Armen Gevorkyan, former Chief of the General Staff Seyran Ohanyan, and former Deputy Minister of Defence Yuri Khachaturov pay the amount in equal shares.

Notably, in 2019, the Armenian Parliament passed a law to provide assistance to relatives of the deceased and those injured during the dispersal of protests on March 1, 2008. That same year, the Ministry of Justice allocated 720 million drams (about $1.8 million) for this purpose.

By Khagan Isayev