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Armenian authorities have pressed new charges against Manvel Grigoryan, a retired army general and a former Republican lawmaker held in pre-trial custody.

In a statement issued on Thursday, the Special Investigative Service (SIS) says the new charges include big tax evasion, misuse of state funds and extortion.

He was initially charged with illegal possession of firearms and embezzlement of army supplies, including a stockpile of canned and preserved food, clothing, hygiene items and medicine donated to servicemen during the 2016 April war.

With the preliminary probe into the criminal case over, the committee says Grigoryan, together with his wife and son, have illegally acquired large amounts of firearms and explosives to store them in three private houses in Armavir Province and Artsakh.

The weapons were discovered and seized earlier in June last year when the retired general was arrested.

In addition, authorities say while serving as president of the Yerkrapah Volunteer Union, he embezzled property worth a total of 101,232,917 drams, with his wife and son assisting in the crime.

The SIS says Grigoryan falsified financial documents of the Yerkrapah Union and avoided taxes amounting to 102,408,095 drams.

He also misused more than 1,255,003,300 drams provided to the union by the education and defense ministries. 

Manvel Grigoryan’s son Arman Grigoryan has been declared wanted.

On 19 June 2018, a Yerevan court ruled to arrest Grigoryan, who had earlier been stripped of his parliamentary immunity.

The ex-MP was freed from pre-trial arrest on 21 December on 25 million drams bail – a ruling appealed by the Prosecutor General’s Office.

On 22 January the Yerevan Court of Appeals ruled to re-arrest Grigoryan.