Former employee of US embassy in Armenia arrested for illegal issuance of
visas
Mediamax news agency
4 Feb 05
YEREVAN
A former employee of the consular department of the US embassy in
Armenia, 45-year-old Piotr Zdzislaw Parlej, has been arrested in
California on charges of taking bribes for illegal issuance of visas
during his tenure in Armenia, the US State Department and Justice
Department say in a joint official statement released by the US
embassy in Armenia today, Mediamax news agency reports.
If the charges laid against him are proved, Parlej will spend from
five to 15 years in prison.
The charges say that from April 2004 to January 2005, Parlej, together
with a group of accomplices, took bribes in Yerevan and forged
American visas. The investigation is processing six separate cases, in
which Piotr Parlej took bribes of 10,000 dollars for issuing US entry
visas.
Attorney Kenneth L. Wainstein and Assistant Secretary for the Bureau
of Diplomatic Security Frank Taylor have stated that they highly
assess the actions of special agents of the US diplomatic security
service, the embassy staff in Armenia and the Armenian law-enforcement
bodies which helped solve the crime.
For its part, the US embassy in Armenia “thanked the Armenian
authorities for their cooperation in investigating the case and would
like to express special thanks to the Armenian National Security
Service for its invaluable help”.