COURT AGAIN POSTPONES EXAMINATION OF PETITION TO CHANGE RESTRAINT MEASURE CONCERNING ROYAL ARMENIA’S MANAGEMENT

Noyan Tapan
Feb 14 2007

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 14, NOYAN TAPAN. At the February 14 sitting,
the court of first instance of Yerevan’s Kentron and Nork-Marash
communities again postponed the examination of the defence lawyers
Ashot Sargsian’s petition to change the measure of restraint concerning
former director of Royal Armenia LLC Aram Ghazarian and the company’s
shareholder Gagik Hakobian. To recap, G. Hakobian and A. Ghazarian are
charged by Articles 178, 325, 215, 190 and 205 of the RA Criminal Code
– fraud, document forgery, smuggling, legalization of illegal incomes
and tax evasion respectively. The defence lawyer said that during
the 20-month arrest, the health conditions of the two defendants
have worsened: particulry, medical examinations revealed that
G. Hakobian needs a heart operation immediately. Prosecutor Lusine
Sahakian insisted that the defendants committed grave or especially
grave crimes, and their release will prevent the examination of the
case. In her words, "it can be proven by presenting simple documents
that G. Hakobian and A. Ghazarian inflicted a 1.5 mln dollar loss
to the US company Federal Investment Group (FIG) LLC, which supplied
large quantities of coffee to Royal Armenia in 1999-2004. The court
satisfied the defence’s petition to demand the following documents
of FIG LLC: its registration certificate, regulations, invoices in
1999-2004, annual reports, annual balance and seal and attach these
documents to the criminal case.