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The son of retired army General, MP Manvel Grigoryan, who is in custody for appropriating army supplies and donations, is also facing criminal charges as part of the same criminal probe.

The officers of the Special Investigation Service (SIS) have brought criminal charges against Karen Grigoryan, who recently stepped down as Etchmiadzin Mayor, for misappropriating large quantities of army donations entrusted to him and his father, with a prior agreement reached with their accomplices.

He is facing charges under Article 179.3 of the Armenian Criminal Code (Squandering and Embezzlement), the SIS press service told Panorama.am.

The law-enforcement agency says during the 2016 April war, the members of the Armenian Community of Russia NGO acquired three UAZ vehicles (worth some 10,028,580 drams), calibration devices and military uniforms from Russia and transferred them to Armenia.

Afterwards, representatives of the organization left for the Artsakh accompanied by Karen Grigoryan to hand the equipment to him and his father as a donation to the Artsakh Defense Army.

Instead of transferring the donations to the Artsakh military, the Grigoryans embezzled them and stored at a facility owned by them at Etchmiadzin city to use the items for their personal needs.

Grigoryan has been released on bail as the preliminary probe continues, the service said.

Manvel Grigoryan was detained on 16 June after security officers raided his Etchmiadzin villa to discover and confiscate large quantities of illegally stored firearms, explosives and cars (including military vehicles).

The discoveries also included canned and preserved food labelled “Not for Sale: Soldier’s Ration”, as well as clothing, hygiene items and medicine donated to servicemen during the 2016 April War.    

The Armenian National Assembly voted on 19 June to strip Manvel Grigoryan of his parliamentary immunity and prosecute him.