A former senior military official has been interrogated as part of a major fraud investigation concerning meat supplies to the army, a Defense Ministry source said on Friday.
A criminal probe was launched last June into alleged fraud in deliveries of beef following media reports that some slaughterhouses had been supplying army units with frozen buffalo meat instead.
A manager at Kapan’s meat factory was arrested last month as part of the investigation.
Mary Sargsian, a senior officer at the Investigation Department of Armenia’s Ministry of Defense, told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service (Azatutyun.am) that Lieutenant-General Arshaluys Paytian, who served as deputy head of the Armenian Armed Forces’ General Staff until last September, was questioned as a witness in the case about two weeks ago.
The spokesperson also said that other Ministry officials were also questioned in the ongoing investigation, but she refused to give names. Nor could Sargsian answer whether other senior military officials would be questioned as part of the investigation soon.
A week ago, answering a question from the Yerevan daily, Hraparak, Defense Minister Seyran Ohanian said that Lieutenant-General Paytian “has already been punished in an administrative order and has been sacked.”
Paytian was not immediately available for comment.
A criminal probe was launched last June into alleged fraud in deliveries of beef following media reports that some slaughterhouses had been supplying army units with frozen buffalo meat instead.
A manager at Kapan’s meat factory was arrested last month as part of the investigation.
Mary Sargsian, a senior officer at the Investigation Department of Armenia’s Ministry of Defense, told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service (Azatutyun.am) that Lieutenant-General Arshaluys Paytian, who served as deputy head of the Armenian Armed Forces’ General Staff until last September, was questioned as a witness in the case about two weeks ago.
The spokesperson also said that other Ministry officials were also questioned in the ongoing investigation, but she refused to give names. Nor could Sargsian answer whether other senior military officials would be questioned as part of the investigation soon.
A week ago, answering a question from the Yerevan daily, Hraparak, Defense Minister Seyran Ohanian said that Lieutenant-General Paytian “has already been punished in an administrative order and has been sacked.”
Paytian was not immediately available for comment.