News - Armenia 3rd President Serzh Sargsyan is acquitted

The verdict in the criminal case against the third President of Armenia, Serzh Sargsyan, was made public Friday, and he was acquitted. A Yerevan criminal court today publicized the verdict in the criminal case involving Serzh Sargsyan, Barsegh Beglaryan, and Gevorg Harutyunyan. And according to the verdict, they have been acquitted. As a result, their restraining order was lifted, and the civil lawsuit was dismissed. There were three defendants in this criminal case. According to the indictment, being organized by Serzh Sargsyan, pushed by Barsegh Beglaryan, the owner of Flash fuel company, and assisted by former Deputy Minister of Agriculture Samvel Galstyan and Gevorg Harutyunyan, former Minister of Agriculture, the late Sergo Karapetyan had squandered—from January 25 to February 7, 2013—489,160,310 drams of subsidy allocated from the government's reserve fund for the 15,391,765 liters of diesel fuel that was used during the implementation of state assistance programs. Serzh Sargsyan was charged under the Criminal Code article on large-scale embezzlement or squandering. The third president, however, had not accepted the charge against him, and his lawyers had said that this process was a political persecution against their client.