The trial court of the Ararat and Vayots Dzor regions presided by Gagik Sargsyan (with the participation of prosecutors Hmayak Hakobyan and Arsen Arsenyan) has finished consideration of charges brought against Fortunate Ikemsinachi Nwaigwe.
Yesterday the appeal of the latter was considered by the Court of Criminal Appeals.
On September 24, the case of the Nigerian citizen was heard in Artashat.
Fortunate Nwaigwe was arrested on June 8.
According to the case facts, he was taken into custody on June 11.
On July 24, H. Hakobyan, the deputy prosecutor of the Ararat region, decided to change custody as the measure of restraint against Fortunate Nwaigwe and he was released on parole.
On June 8, no. 44107212 criminal case was opened at the investigation department (investigator P. Yeghiazaryan) according to Article 178, Section 3, Clause 1 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Armenia regarding the crime of serious fraud in the amount of $9.000 (3.609.822 AMD) committed by Fortunate Ikemsinachi Nwaigwe and some Rosy against Andranik Danoyan.
According to the indictment, in April 2012, Fortunate Ikemsinachi Nwaigwe, Mariam Traore and some black man met Andranik Danoyan, a resident of the village of Marmarashen, region of Ararat, while walking down the Masis highway heading to the city of Yerevan. According to the case facts, “Danoyan was surprised that one of the black people spoke Armenian, he invited them to a trailer on his land, treated them to coffee and talked to Fortunate Nwaigwe who spoke Armenian and who introduced himself as Patrick, said that he was a footballer, introduced his black wife as Rosy, said she was his sister and introduced
the other man as his friend. Fortunate Ikemsinachi Nwaigwe expressed a wish to visit Danoyan again, while being in the town of Masis.”
The other two black people talked to A. Danoyan through Fortunate Nwaigwe. By the way, Fortunate said that they lived in the Armenia Marriott Hotel, that his sister had come from France to carry out business projects and they wanted to buy land and enclosures and engage in cattle breeding, as well as to buy an apartment in Masis. Naïve Danoyan offered them to buy the land in the village of Marmarashen that belonged to him and promised the black people to help them with business.
F. Nwaigwe and M. Traore said that their father had been killed in the Republic of Nigeria, since he had been a presidential candidate and his friends had given to their mother $2 million as financial assistance and their mother would sent a part of that money to them within the next month to start a business, they promised to help A. Donoyan, to buy the land, as well as to give him money, but they asked him not to tell anyone about their plans for safety. A. Danoyan brought the latter to Yerevan, Armenia Marriott Hotel, in his car and realized that they really lived there.
Fortunate Nwaigwe called A. Danoyan on his phone and asked him to lend him $3000, in order that he could pay for the hotel room, which cost $300 a day. On April 11, A. Danoyan gave $1000 to Fortunate. A. Danoyan saw a black suitcase in Fortunate’s hand, which M. Traore offered to keep in A. Danoyan’s house as a safe place, to which A. Danoyan agreed and went to his house in the village of Marmarashen, region of Ararat, with them. A. Danoyan kept the suitcase in a cellar attached to his house.
What was kept in the cellar?
In the cellar of A. Danoyan’s house in the village of Marmarashen, A. Danoyan gave F. Nwaigwe $8000 in $100 banknotes. M. Traore took cotton, foil, medical gloves and masks out of her bag, after which she wrote down the numbers of the banknotes in a notebook, then she took some liquid with pungent smell out of the suitcase and smeared it on all the banknotes, put them between black papers cut in the shape of a banknote, which she had taken out of the suitcase. In the meantime, they sent A. Danoyan away from the cellar using different excuses, to bring a stone, a metal plate and water. After that, they wrapped the bundle of black paper with foil and told A. Danoyan that they had to be kept in that condition for 2 days and then left. Two days later, F. Nwaigwe and M. Traore didn’t come and on the third day, A. Danoyan opened the package with suspicion and saw that $8000 he had given were not there, only then he understood that he had been deceived and started to look for the black people.
On July 13, 2012, Mariam Traore was involved as an accused in accordance with Article 178, Section 3, Clause 1 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Armenia and was wanted by the police. On August 6, 2012, the part of the criminal case regarding Mariam Traore was separated from it on the grounds of not revealing her whereabouts.
Fortunate Nwaigwe had a speedy trial.
The court found Fortunate guilty in accordance with Article 178, Section 3, Clause 1 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Armenia and sentenced him to 4 years in prison without
confiscation of property. His measure of restraint, release on parole, was left unchanged until the verdict went into effect. Yesterday he was sentenced to 4 years in prison, 3 out of which will be served on probation.
RUZAN MINASYAN
