Armenia’s Anti-Corruption Committee (ACC) said on Thursday that it also detained five other senior officials in an ongoing criminal investigation into “numerous cases” of bribery and other corrupt practices in the Ministry of Emergency Situations.
In a statement, the ACC said it charged Piloyan on three counts of large-scale bribery and asked a court to remand him in pre-trial custody.
In particular, the law-enforcement agency claimed that he received this year a hefty kickback in return for making decisions that benefited a private contractor. It did not elaborate.
The ACC said the minister was also bribed by an unnamed person who was appointed to a senior position in the ministry’s Rescue Service in January.
A total of eight individuals have been indicted in the corruption probe so far, the ACC statement said, adding that ten others currently have the status of suspects. The detainees include an adviser to Piloyan.
It was not clear whether the minister will confess to the accusations or protest his innocence in the court.
The ACC and the National Security Service (NSS) jointly searched some offices in the ministry building in Yerevan on Monday. Piloyan went on a two-week vacation hours after the raid.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian commented on Piloyan’s arrest during a weekly cabinet meeting on Thursday. He said it underscores his government’s “zero tolerance of corruption.”
Piloyan is a retired army general who participated in the 2020 war with Azerbaijan. During the six-week hostilities, he received Armenia’s highest state award, the title of National Hero, for leading what Pashinian called a successful Armenian counteroffensive southwest of Nagorno-Karabakh.
The award proved highly controversial seeing as Azerbaijani forces continued their advance in that area in the following days.
Pashinian went on to appoint Piloyan as minister in November 2020 less than two weeks after a Russian-brokered ceasefire that stopped the devastating war.