YEREVAN. June 19 (Interfax) - Manvel Grigoryan, an Armenian parliamentarian, retired general, and head of the volunteer union Yerkrapa, has been indicted under two articles of the Armenian Criminal Code.
The Armenian Prosecutor General's Office press service said on Tuesday that Grigoryan had been indicted for the illegal acquisition, sale, storage, transportation, or carrying of weapons, ammunition, explosives, or explosive devices by a group of people acting in complicity (punished by two to six years' imprisonment) and misappropriation or embezzlement on a large scale (four to eight years' imprisonment, plus possible confiscation of property).
A motion on Grigoryan's arrest has been filed with a court.
Earlier on Tuesday, the parliament deprived Grigoryan of immunity.
Prosecutor General Arthur Davtyan said in the parliament that in the criminal case related to the illegal possession of weapons, Grigoryan acted in complicity with his wife, retired Col. Nazik Amiryan, his daughter, Aitsemnik Grigoryan, and two residents of Echmiadzin, Seiran Kazaryan and Armen Akopyan.
Manvel Grigoryan was detained on Saturday. The same day, Arthur Asatryan, reportedly a crime boss known as Don Pipo, was also arrested.
The National Security Service released a video of the search of Grigoryan's mansion and "recreation area" on Sunday.
Law enforcement discovered hundreds of boxes containing clothes, medication, bandages, food, and hygiene items that students and various groups of activists had collected for solders after an outbreak of violence in Nagorno-Karabakh in April 2016. The boxes also contained students' letters to the troops, which never reached the addressees.
Eighteen anti-tank grenades, 20 F-1 grenades, over 33,000 cartridges of various calibers, 12 400g TNT blocks, 79 rifles, 39 pistols, other weapons, and dozens of property certificates were also found in the general's residence.
Police said later that an UAZ and a GAZ vehicle loaded with 2,980 cans with meat and marked "Not for sale. For soldiers" had been discovered at a parking lot in Yerevan. The vehicles' drivers said they had taken the boxes with the canned meat out of the Yerkrapa building on Nazik Amiryan's instructions.
Manvel Grigoryan's son, Karen Grigoryan, said he was resigning as the mayor of Echmiadzin, a town 20 kilometers west of Yerevan.
The National Security Service said it obtained information that Don Pipo was preparing to abduct people who had planned to assassinate him. According to Armenian media reports, the attack was plotted by Grigoryan and his people. Four citizens of Russia, whom the National Security Service believes are Don Pipo's bodyguards, were detained along with him.