Armenian court sanctions ex-foreign minister's arrest

10/ 05/ 2007

YEREVAN, May 10 (RIA Novosti) - A court in Yerevan sanctioned Thursday the arrest of a former Armenian foreign minister who was detained May 8 and is facing money laundering charges.

Alexander Arzumanyan and the country's former deputy defense minister Vaan Shirkhanyan, founders of the public organization, Civil Disobedience Movement, had agreed with Levon Markos, a Russian national, who has been wanted for financial fraud since 2005, to transfer and launder money in April. It was established that on April 27 the three offenders transferred $180,000 to nine front parties through a bank in Yerevan.

Last Saturday investigators found foreign currency in the two former politician's flats, including $55,400 in cash in Arzumanyan's apartment. An investigation is underway.

Arzumanyan was Armenia's foreign minister from November 1996 through February 1998, and Shirkhanyan held the post of deputy defense minister from 1994 through 1999.

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