The office of Prosecutor-General Anna Vardapetian said late on Monday that Ohanian, who is now the parliamentary leader of the main opposition Hayastan alliance, illegally privatized land and built a summer house there when he served as Armenian defense minister from 2008-2016. It said that Artsvik Minasian, another Hayastan parliamentarian, facilitated the alleged land seizure in his then capacity as environment minister.
In a separate criminal case, the office alleged that Ohanian also accepted a kickback worth 58 million drams ($150,000) from a private firm in return for helping it win a Defense Ministry contract.
The National Assembly controlled by Pashinian’s party will meet next week to discuss Vardapetian’s petition to lift Ohanian’s and Minasian’s immunity from prosecution. Both lawmakers rejected the accusations as politically motivated on Tuesday, saying that the chief prosecutor is executing Pashinian’s orders.
“Pashinian and [Azerbaijani President Ilham] Aliyev are acting in concert, staging cheap shows in Baku and Yerevan,” said Ohanian. “It is obvious that their main goal is to divert public attention from the threats to Armenian statehood that they have created with their own hands.”
Another Hayastan deputy, Armenuhi Kyureghian, linked the accusations to Pashinian’s “hysterical behavior” and threats voiced during the Armenian government’s question-and-answer session in the parliament on May 7.
At that session, Pashinian lost his temper and pledged to “go after” Ohanian and other Hayastan lawmakers in response to their claims that he is turning a blind eye to media reports about corruption among members of his entourage.
“You must be the first to go [to prison] and you will go,” Pashinian shouted at the retired general.
The opposition bloc condemned Pashinian’s threats as illegal and challenged Vardapetian to act on them when she appeared before the National Assembly the following day. The chief prosecutor, who previously worked as a legal aide to the prime minister, responded by repeatedly saying that she does not make “political statements.”