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Amram Makinyan, one of the defense lawyers of former Armenian Ambassador to the Vatican Mikayel Minasyan, took to Facebook on Thursday to condemn the “ordered” criminal proceedings against the ex-diplomat.

The State Revenue Committee officially charged Minasyan with money laundering and illicit enrichment on Wednesday.

“Referring to the State Revenue Committee's statement on the case involving former Armenian Ambassador to the Holy See Mikayel Minasyan, I would like to state that in parallel to the public calls for “secrecy of preliminary investigation and restraint”, an instruction could have been made for the “criminal case” to be investigated in compliance with the basic requirements of the Criminal Procedure Code of Armenia at least starting from now, instead of officially announcing the next violation of the law, that is a search warrant has been issued without a decision on the measure of restraint,” he wrote.

“As for the unprecedented move to describe the transfer of money of legal origin from one bank account to another as "money laundering", it is, among other things, a vivid proof of a clear order being carried out against Mikayel Minasyan,” he added.

The lawyer urged the tax authorities to at least summon for questioning those persons “whose actions resulted in the illegal charges against Ambassador Minasyan.”