The National Security Service of the Republic of Armenia, conducting a consistent and effective fight in the direction of disclosing, preventing and disrupting intelligence activities of the special services of foreign states directed against the territorial inviolability and external security of the Republic of Armenia, as a result of operative-search and criminal-procedural joint actions detected a case of high treasure committed by a former high-ranking military man. In particular, as a result of numerous and effective investigative and other procedural actions carried out, as well as operative-search measures taken in parallel with them during the preliminary investigation in the criminal case initiated and being investigated in the Investigation Department of the National Security Service of the Republic of Armenia, a body of sufficient evidence was obtained that a citizen of the Republic of Armenia, having entered the service in the RA Armed Forces on the relevant order of the RA Minister of Defense and holding responsible positions in different years, transferred or collected information containing state secrets in order to transfer to representatives of a foreign organization, provided other assistance in the implementation of hostile activities to the detriment of the territorial inviolability  and external security of the Republic of Armenia.

Thus, the person involved in the criminal case as an accused, while on the territory of the Republic of Georgia, came to the attention of the Azerbaijani intelligence services operating in that country and, being recruited by the employees of those intelligence services, received specific assignments to obtain information about the external security, the Armed Forces and armament of the Artsakh and the Republic of Armenia or transfer information already available to him by the nature of his service, including about the personnel of the army, weapons, ammunition, the number and types of military equipment, military units and their command personnel, defense areas, engineering structures and equipment, etc., that is, to the detriment of the external security of the Republic of Armenia.

After that, the mentioned person started collecting such information, in particular, having served in the RA Armed Forces for many years, having a permission to access state and official secrets by position, bearing responsibility for their leakage, realizing that in case of leakage of this information damage to the security of the country will be caused, collected and kept information constituting official and state secrets about military equipment, armaments, including tanks, batteries, reinforcement equipment, paramount vulnerable objects, persons serving in the Armed Forces of the Republic of Armenia and registered in the reserve, etc., and, also using his connections in the Armed Forces of the Republic of Armenia and among the officers of Artsakh, periodically met with the latter and showed interest in the specific actions carried out by the units, etc., and collected data, after which, he periodically travelled to the Republic of Georgia from the Republic of Armenia and both on the territory of the Embassy of Azerbaijan and abroad held meetings and numerous telephone conversations with the employees of the Azerbaijani intelligence services and transferred them in parts or reported information known and collected by him containing state secrets, as well as provided other assistance for the implementation of hostile activities, performing tasks of intelligence services of a hostile country to the detriment of territorial inviolability and external security of the Republic of Armenia, all the while trying to keep his identity, his contact numbers with the intelligence services as secret as possible.

For the commission of the aforementioned criminal act, a decision has been made to involve the mentioned person as an accused for committing a crime on the grounds of Article 299, Part 1 of the RA Criminal Code and arrest has been chosen as a measure of restraint against him.

It should be noted that as a result of urgent investigative actions, taken during the preliminary investigation in a criminal case, including about more than a dozen searches, a large amount of ammunition was found and seized in the apartment or back rooms of the accused- grenades, fuses, cartridges, as well as documents (some of which in a single copy) that have not lost their relevance, containing official and state secrets on military equipment, armaments, including tanks, batteries, means of amplification, paramount vulnerable objects, etc.

At the same time, during the search conducted at the place of residence of the accused, radio transmitting equipment, communication means, notebooks containing records of telephone numbers intended for communicating with the Azerbaijani special services for carrying out intelligence activities were also found.

The National Security Service of the Republic of Armenia is consistently fighting in the direction of disclosing, preventing and disrupting intelligence activities of special services and other organizations of foreign states, as well as individuals and will continue to take effective measures in the direction of protecting the security of the individual, society and the state, constitutional order, the rights and freedoms of citizens from internal and external threats.

At the same time, the National Security Service expects that wide circles of the public will also be involved in this process and will report to the authorities the information they become aware of about high treason or espionage in the name of the sovereignty, security and territorial inviolability of the Republic of Armenia.

Note: The suspect or accused of an alleged crime is considered innocent as long as his/her guilt is not proven in a manner prescribed by the Code of Criminal Procedure of RA - by the court decision entered into legal force.