NATIONAL ASSEMBLY DEPUTY CONSIDERS CRIMINAL CASE AGAINST ROYAL ARMENIA AS FAKED UP
Noyan Tapan
Feb 12 2007
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 12, NOYAN TAPAN. The case of Royal Armenia is the
first one when a private company declined to give a bribe to employees
of the RA State Customs Committee adjunct to the RA government, and
the company’s shareholder Gagik Hakobian and deputy director Aram
Ghazarian are in an isolation cell for declining to give a bribe. RA
National Assembly deputy Tatul Manaserian stated this on February 12
during a joint press conference with Royal Armenia’s defence lawyer
Ashot Sargsian and the company’s lawyer Gagik Minasian. T. Manaserian
said that he familiarized himself with the criminal case opened against
Royal Armenia in March 2005 on a charge that the company imported green
coffee, rice and pepper of 579.7 thousand drams (about 3.5 thousand
USD) by forging documents. This 7 thousand-page criminal case was
recently submitted to the prosecution. He said that he had met with
G. Hakobian in the isolation cell and talked with him, as a result of
which his conviction that the criminal case against Royal Armenia is
"faked up and full of falsifications" has strengthened. The court of
first instance of Yerevan’s Kentron and Nork Marash communities will
start examining the criminal case against Royal Armenia on February
14. A. Sargsian and G. Minasian said that according to the October
7, 2006 conclusion about G. Hakobian and A. Ghazarian, the latters
are charged with fraud, forgery of documents and seals, smuggling,
legalization of illegal incomes, tax and duty evasion. In the opinion
of A. Sargsian and G. Minasian, the case against Royal Armenia was
opened with the aim of driving this company out of the country’s
coffee market. Particularly, Royal Armenia is accused of smuggling
goods of 16 million dollars.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
