Law-enforcement authorities in Armenia said on Thursday that they have issued an international arrest warrant for a former senior customs official who they believe masterminded an apparent attempt on the life of Gagik Khachatrian, head of the State Revenue Committee (SRC).
The National Security Service (NSS) also revealed that nine other persons have been arrested in the ongoing investigation into the May 23 explosion near Khachatrian’s Yerevan apartment.
The blast was reportedly caused by a homemade explosive device planted in a construction site adjacent to the apartment block located in the city center. Nobody was hurt by it. The chief of the Armenian police, Alik Sargsian, told RFE/RL on May 28 that the case has essentially been solved by the police and the NSS.
In a written statement, the NSS confirmed reports that the main suspect in the case is Robert Yeritsian, a former head of an anti-smuggling department at the Armenian customs. His father, Albert Yeritsian, is a wealthy businessman who has until now governed Yerevan’s northern Arabkir district.
Robert Yeritsian was dismissed from his post a year ago shortly after being harshly criticized by President Serzh Sarkisian in front of television cameras. The customs service was headed by Khachatrian at the time. It was merged with the State Tax Service into a single agency, the SRC, later in 2008.
According to the NSS, Yeritsian hired, through a middleman, a criminal group consisting of eight persons and paid it $150,000 to carry out Khachatrian’s assassination. The powerful security agency said the gang was led by Gagik Matevosian, a former deputy commander of a special operations squad of Armenian interior troops.
The NSS statement said investigators searched his apartment and found “unprecedented quantities of weapons, ammunition, explosive materials and remotely controlled detonators.” Both Matevosian and his henchmen are now under arrest, it said.
The statement added that that another man, Rafael Masumian, who allegedly acted as an intermediary between Yeritsian and the ringleader, fled to Georgia before those arrests. It said Masumian was recently arrested by Armenian and Georgian security officers at Tbilisi airport as he was about to board a flight to Vienna.
Contacted by RFE/RL shortly before the release of the NSS statement, Albert Yeritsian, declined to comment on his son’s whereabouts and the case against the latter, referring all inquiries to the Armenian successor to the Soviet KGB. A source close to the Yeritsian family told RFE/RL later in the day that Robert is in Armenia and is preparing to turn himself in.
Incidentally, Yerevan’s newly elected Mayor Gagik Beglarian on Wednesday sacked Albert Yeritsian as chief of the Arabkir administration. Virtually all of the other Yerevan district chiefs were re-appointed by Beglarian. The mayor’s office gave no reasons for Yeritsian’s sacking.
The blast was reportedly caused by a homemade explosive device planted in a construction site adjacent to the apartment block located in the city center. Nobody was hurt by it. The chief of the Armenian police, Alik Sargsian, told RFE/RL on May 28 that the case has essentially been solved by the police and the NSS.
In a written statement, the NSS confirmed reports that the main suspect in the case is Robert Yeritsian, a former head of an anti-smuggling department at the Armenian customs. His father, Albert Yeritsian, is a wealthy businessman who has until now governed Yerevan’s northern Arabkir district.
Robert Yeritsian was dismissed from his post a year ago shortly after being harshly criticized by President Serzh Sarkisian in front of television cameras. The customs service was headed by Khachatrian at the time. It was merged with the State Tax Service into a single agency, the SRC, later in 2008.
According to the NSS, Yeritsian hired, through a middleman, a criminal group consisting of eight persons and paid it $150,000 to carry out Khachatrian’s assassination. The powerful security agency said the gang was led by Gagik Matevosian, a former deputy commander of a special operations squad of Armenian interior troops.
The NSS statement said investigators searched his apartment and found “unprecedented quantities of weapons, ammunition, explosive materials and remotely controlled detonators.” Both Matevosian and his henchmen are now under arrest, it said.
The statement added that that another man, Rafael Masumian, who allegedly acted as an intermediary between Yeritsian and the ringleader, fled to Georgia before those arrests. It said Masumian was recently arrested by Armenian and Georgian security officers at Tbilisi airport as he was about to board a flight to Vienna.
Contacted by RFE/RL shortly before the release of the NSS statement, Albert Yeritsian, declined to comment on his son’s whereabouts and the case against the latter, referring all inquiries to the Armenian successor to the Soviet KGB. A source close to the Yeritsian family told RFE/RL later in the day that Robert is in Armenia and is preparing to turn himself in.
Incidentally, Yerevan’s newly elected Mayor Gagik Beglarian on Wednesday sacked Albert Yeritsian as chief of the Arabkir administration. Virtually all of the other Yerevan district chiefs were re-appointed by Beglarian. The mayor’s office gave no reasons for Yeritsian’s sacking.