14:27, 16 December, 2020
YEREVAN, DECEMBER 16, ARMENPRESS. The Court of Appeals has overturned an arrest warrant issued by a lower court that would allow the State Revenue Committee’s investigators to place the former Armenian Ambassador to the Vatican Mikayel Minasyan in pre-trial detention amid an ongoing investigation into alleged money laundering, illicit enrichment and falsification of asset disclosures.
Minasyan, who is the son-in-law of the 3rd President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan, denies wrongdoing and claims that the charges are fabricated and politically motivated. He is declared wanted by Armenian authorities.
Mikayel Minasyan served as Armenian Ambassador to the Holy See from 2013 to 2018. He was concurrently Armenia’s Ambassador to the Sovereign Military Order of Malta from 2014-2018 and to Portugal from 2017 to 2018.
He is one of the most outspoken critics of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and his administration.
Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan