An Armenian businesswoman acknowledged on Wednesday that a corruption accusation leveled against the arrested former President Robert Kocharian stems from her incriminating testimony.
Silva Hambardzumian claimed that in 2008 she transferred a $2 million bribe to Kocharian, his chief of staff Armen Gevorgian and incoming successor Serzh Sarkisian through Samvel Mayrapetian, a wealthy entrepreneur who was close to Armenia’s former leaders.
Mayrapetian was arrested in October on charges of “assisting” in payment of a large bribe. He denied the accusation before being freed on bail in late December.
Earlier in December, Armenia’s Special Investigative Service (SIS) brought three fresh charges, including bribery, against Gevorgian. The former senior aide to Kocharian too denied any wrongdoing.
It emerged on Tuesday that the SIS has also charged Kocharian with taking a hefty bribe while in power. The 64-year-old president was earlier indicted and arrested in connection with the deadly breakup of post-election opposition protests in March 2008.
Hambardzumian told RFE/RL’s Armenian service that SIS officials investigating the 2008 bloodshed interrogated her in October after discovering the payment of $2 million to a construction company owned by Mayrapetian. She said she told them that she had asked the tycoon to “take the money to three persons: Kocharian, Armen Gevorgian and Serzh Sarkisian.”
Hambardzumian said she wanted to make sure that they “don’t interfere with my business.” “I myself gave the money. They didn’t demand it from me. I made that clear in my testimony,” she said.
“The whole country knows that when you made a deal you had to be protected, to have [government] ‘tutelage,’” she went on. “Since I didn’t have such tutelage but managed to do business and make a fortune I thanked people for not hampering me.”
The businesswoman revealed that she and Mayrapetian were also interrogated face to face by the SIS. “Samvel said, ‘Yes, she did transfer [the sum] to me, but I don’t remember what for,’” she claimed.
Hambardzumian further stressed that she did not meet with Kocharian or Sarkisian and does not know whether the alleged bribe reached them.
Kocharian was quick to deny the bribery charge through his lawyers on Tuesday. He also rejects the other charges, accusing Armenia’s current leadership of waging a political “vendetta” against him.
Hambardzumian already made headlines last fall when she publicly alleged that she paid former Environment Minister Aram Harutiunian $14 million in bribes in 2008. Harutiunian denied the allegation after being formally charged in January.