An Armenian court on Monday rejected investigators’ request for an arrest to be applied against Ara Minasian, a former director of one of Yerevan’s leading hospitals accused of fraud and forgery.
Minasian’s attorney Tigran Ghazarian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service that the court found the petition concerning the father of ex-President Serzh Sarkisian’s son-in-law ungrounded.
“The final part of the judicial act was published. It said that the investigators’ petition is rejected on the basis that it is ungrounded,” said the attorney, adding that they will study the document in detail after receiving it later today.
On Friday, the Investigation Committee said that charges of “particularly large-scale fraud and forgery committed with a group of people” had been brought against Minasian.
“Minasian is hiding from the investigation, and his whereabouts are unknown. He has been put on a wanted list,” the Committee said.
Asked about where his client was at this moment, Minasian’s attorney Ghazarian said that he could not give any information on that account.
Prosecution against Ara Minasian last week was announced amid the news of the recalling of his son, Mikayel Minasian, from several ambassador posts, including the post of Armenia’s ambassador to the Vatican.
Mikayel Minasian, who is married to one of the daughters of ex-President Serzh Sarkisian, served as the country’s envoy to the Holy See since 2013. Before that, he occupied a senior position in the Sarkisian administration and many political pundits regarded him as the former president’s political and public relations strategist.
During his years of work in public office Minasian, 41, mostly kept a low profile, but he is also thought to have controlled several private TV stations as well as a number of online news services.
The move to recall Minasian from ambassador posts came amid changes put in place by acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian, a former opposition lawmaker who took office in May after spearheading weeks of protests.
The demonstrations helped bring the resignation of Sarkisian, his long-ruling predecessor.
Under Pashinian’s administration cases were brought against several former officials and close relatives of Sarkisian’s family for a variety of alleged crimes.
The health minister in the Pashinian government sacked Ara Minasian from the position of executive director of Yerevan’s Surb Grigor Lusavorich medical center in July.
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