Lawyer claims tapes refute election bribery allegations

PanARMENIAN.Net - Lawyer Arsen Babayan has stated that recordings released by the Anti-Corruption Committee clearly show that former National Security Service director and Homeland party leader Artur Vanetsyan, as well as the Homeland party, have no connection to alleged vote-buying in the Vagharshapat elections. He wrote about this on his Facebook page.

“The Anti-Corruption Committee has published certain recordings in the alleged vote-buying case related to the Vagharshapat elections and claimed that the incident of vote-buying has supposedly been confirmed.

Although the committee released only the segments it deemed favorable, it should still be thanked even for publishing those, since even these recordings completely refute any involvement of Khachik Galstyan and Aram Kocharyan in acts related to vote-buying.

It is precisely from these recordings that it becomes evident that Vanetsyan and the Homeland party have not had and do not have any connection to vote-buying.

A brief excerpt from the recording itself: ‘Vanetsyan found out what was happening and refused…’

Court hearings in this case will begin soon, during which we will demonstrate in detail how the case was fabricated and then ‘ironed out’,” the statement said.

Criminal proceedings have been initiated against 62 individuals in connection with alleged vote-buying during the Vagharshapat municipal council elections. “In order to carry out the criminal intent, members of the group recruited primarily members of the Republican Party of Armenia who had broad connections and numerous acquaintances within the public. As a result, more than fifty individuals were promised bribes of 50,000 drams each on the condition that they vote for the candidate of the Homeland party,” the statement said.