Considering the interest of the general public in the criminal proceedings on the facts of high treason and espionage initiated in the Investigation Department of the National Security Service of the Republic of Armenia, we inform that in connection with proceedings, final procedural act was drawn up in one of the proceedings initiated on the fact of high treason and the criminal proceeding against one person under custody with indictment was submitted to the court.

In the course of a comprehensive investigation conducted by the Investigation Department, it was established that a citizen of the Republic of Armenia, being recruited by representatives of foreign special services, transferred to the latter various information related to the military sphere, which had become known to him by the nature of service, after which he wrote a commitment about cooperation with employees of special services, received an appropriate pseudonym and a promise of a monthly payment for cooperation in the amount of 500 USD.

After that, during the 44-day war, the mentioned person, being involved in the conduct of combat operations as part of a military unit in various areas of defense, went over to the side of the opponent and with the aim of acting to the detriment of the security and territorial integrity of the Republic of Armenia, having a higher military education in the specialty “rocket man”, having the skills of combat launches from a rocket system and directing one of the rocket systems being on the balance sheet of the military unit, in the presence of exact coordinates provided and rechecked by the relevant service of the N military unit of the RA MoD, deliberately fired untargeted fire shots from the combat unit under his command  rocket system and did not hit the enemy's fire targets, as a result of which it was not possible to perform the combat task assigned to the calculation.

In addition, in order not to be in the field of view of the bodies of the Republic of Armenia engaged in counterintelligence activities during the meeting, and in order not to be identified by them, the employees of the foreign special services provided the mentioned person with their mobile phone, on which the application with the program for encrypting their communications was installed, instructing not use it for the purpose of communication, constantly keep it in the “flight” mode and, when transmitting information, use the means of connecting to the Internet installed in public places, etc.

As a result, the person subject to criminal prosecution collected and, through a disguised Internet connection, provided representatives of foreign special services with information about the military equipment acquired by the Motherland, ammunition, loss of military equipment during the war, also providing the staffing table of the military personnel of the division of his military unit, containing information on the number of personnel, positions held, assigned weapons and ammunition, documents put into circulation by the leadership of the RA Armed Forces on the conditions of military service.

In addition, the mentioned person promised to collect and transfer to the latter the combat training plan, maps and combat orders of the N military unit of the RA MoD, being state secrets and marked “secret”, for a payment of 4,000 USD, but failed to complete the criminal activity, as he was detected by the officers of the RA National Security Service.

In the course of the criminal proceeding, a body of sufficient evidence was also obtained that during the war the same person, driving a military vehicle with a rocket system, which is military equipment assigned to the N military unit of the RA MoD, with the aim of intentionally damaging it and the transport- loading vehicle, which was other military equipment of the same unit, and rockets installed on it, being ammunition, upon seeing the said vehicle parked behind the vehicle he was driving, abruptly reversed and the rear part collided with the said vehicle, damaging it and rockets loaded on it, as a result of which the mentioned military equipment during the 44-day war was not used for combat tasks for a long time.

So, the person involved in the case as the accused provided the opponent with a real opportunity, in the course of planning possible hostilities, to make accurate calculations of forces and means, to determine the number and disposition of forces and means involved in the performance of combat missions in different sectors, and as well as to predetermine the nature of combat tasks assigned to the military units of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Armenia with a special status, the possible scope of the tasks to be solved by them and, as a result, hinder the proper fulfillment of the tasks assigned to the units of the Armed Forces, thus, to the detriment of the territorial integrity and external security of the Republic of Armenia, committed high treason.

The National Security Service of the Republic of Armenia informs that during 2022 alone, in criminal proceedings initiated on cases of committing high treason, investigators of the Investigation Department of the RA NSS transferred to the court 8 criminal proceedings with an indictment against 15 persons.

The preliminary investigation on other initiated proceedings are ongoing and, taking into account the interest of the general public in them, the RA National Security Service will periodically provide information on their progress and results.