NKR's authorities refuse to deprive Grigoryan of "Artsakh Hero" title

The authorities refused to deprive Manvel Grigoryan, an Armenian MP, of the "Artsakh Hero" title, which was demanded by activists of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR), and promised to consider the issue after the court judgement is passed. The MP's advocates assert that Manvel Grigoryan, detained on suspicion of illegal arms trafficking, is completely innocent.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on June 16, retired General Manvel Grigoryan, an MP from the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA), was detained on suspicion of illicit arms trafficking. On June 19, it became known that a criminal case was instituted against Manvel Grigoryan about the large-scale embezzlement of goods intended for the needs of the army.

A group of young people from the Gadrut District of the NKR put forward a demand to republic's authorities to deprive Manvel Grigoryan of the "Artsakh Hero" title.

The young people point out in their video message posted on the Facebook that while Grigoryan's activities has become a moral shock for the entire Armenian nation, for Gadrut residents this is no news.

So far, the NKR's authorities have not reacted to the demand, the members of the initiative group told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

"We should wait for the verdict of the court," said David Babayan, the head of the Chief Information Office of the NKR President's Office.

"There should be an open and transparent trial, so that the entire public knows all the details, to what extent they correspond to reality, and whether there are additional circumstances that the public does not know about," Mr Babayan said.

Meanwhile, Manvel Grigoryan, has testified that he has nothing to do with all the goods that were found by the National Security Service (NSS) in the cellars of the houses that belong to him; and he refused to plead guilty, his advocates said at a press conference in Yerevan on June 19.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’on June 21, 2018 at 05:58 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.