EX-ARMENIAN MINISTER AIVAZIAN FACING UP TO 5 YEARS IN PRISON
Interfax News Agency, Russia
Russia & CIS
February 28, 2008
Former Armenian State Revenues Minister Smbat Aivazian has been charged
with resisting a government official using violence, the police press
service said on Wednesday.
The charges brought against Aivazian carry a fine varying from 300,000
to 500,000 drams (up to $2,000) or up to 5 years of imprisonment,
it said.
An unidentified caller reported the police on February 24 that he
had seen armed men on one of central streets of Yerevan, it said.
"Operatives from the organized crime department, who promptly arrived
at the place, found spring batons and a Makarov pistol in Aivazian’s
car," it said.
Aivazian and two men accompanying him were taken to a police station.
It turned out that the men who were together with Aivazian had prior
convictions. However, they were released, it said.
Aram Sarkisian, the leader of the opposition Republica party
demanded at a rally in downtown Yerevan on Wednesday that Aivazian
be immediately released.