Gagik Khachatryan`s lawyers have declared that they have exhausted legal means to protect the former minister`s life and health

ArmInfo. Domestic legal remedies for protecting the life and health of former Finance Minister and former Chairman of the State Revenue Committee of the Republic of Armenia Gagik Khachatryan have been exhausted. This was stated in a statement by Gagik Khachatryan's legal team.

The video attached to the statement captures footage of Khachatryan being detained by NSS officers, as well as scenes of treatment that, according to the legal team, can be considered torture, and other sensitive content.

<71-year-old Gagik Khachatryan is not only deprived of his fundamental right to receive proper medical care but is also subjected to inhumane treatment and torture. In the last three months alone, he was twice transported on a stretcher in a semi-conscious state to participate in investigative actions," the statement reads.

The lawyers' statement recalled that Khachatryan was diagnosed with spinal stenosis back in 2015. Special implants not used in Armenian medical institutions were installed in his cervical spine. - the statement reads.

As a reminder, today the press service of the Investigative Committee announced that a new criminal case has been opened against former Finance Minister and former Chairman of the State Revenue Committee of the Republic of Armenia Gagik Khachatryan.

In particular, he is accused of receiving a particularly large bribe from S.M., Director of Progress Armenia LLC and Local Developers LLC, and acquiring property in exchange for the bribe. The former Chairman of the State Revenue Committee and former Finance Minister is accused of receiving real estate as a bribe from S.M., Director of Progress Armenia LLC and Local Developers LLC, in 2008-2010. For not creating obstacles for companies' activities on the part of tax and customs authorities, for ensuring maximum freedom of economic activity, for easing oversight functions, and for issuing more favorable administrative decisions in certain cases.

The former Chairman of the State Revenue Committee and the former Minister of Finance are also accused of embezzling 174,581,000 drams from the state budget. Specifically, between 2011 and 2017, the State Revenue Committee and the Ministry of Finance signed a number of contracts, 21 of which were with Saakyanshin CJSC, for the purpose of reconstructing and equipping the Dilijan Educational Center. Twelve of these contracts included cladding the center's buildings and structures with 30mm-thick travertine tiles. The execution certificates recorded the completion of 17,506,371 square meters of work for a total of 714,451,000 drams, while the actual volume of work completed was 15,411.3 square meters, which is 2,095,071 square meters less than indicated in the execution certificates. For the 2,095,071 square meters of work not actually completed, 85,497,000 drams were paid from state funds. As a result of the payment of an amount in excess of the average market value, Sahakyanshin CJSC was additionally paid 89,083,000 drams for each square meter of work actually completed.

According to the case materials, Khachatryan also used a scheme to illegally alienate property worth 208,908,000 drams belonging to Bryusov University.

Meanwhile, according to specialists, a medical device is implanted in Gagik Khachatryan's cervical spine. The device was implanted in Germany and has a medical condition: it can only be removed or displaced within the same medical facility. It's like a safe key—it can't be replaced with another device or at another medical facility.

Now this device has become dislodged. This is a postoperative complication, and any movement could be fatal. Just as a person with a spinal fracture should not be moved without medical assistance, so too in this case.

As social media users write, the "heroes" from the NSB (National Security Service) imagine themselves to be serious doctors and are moving a man in a blanket. "If something happens, they won't be held accountable. They'll say, 'We were following orders. We weren't doctors, so how were we supposed to know how to move him?'"