Contract Serviceman Reveals State Secret to Enemy for a Trivial Amount

The contract serviceman of the Armenian Ministry of Defense's military unit No. N, holding the rank of senior sergeant, became acquainted with an employee of a foreign intelligence service via the 'Odnoklassniki' social network in January 2022. He was subsequently recruited by this individual and maintained communication with the representative of Azerbaijani intelligence services via the 'WhatsApp' application from January to June 2022, as reported by the public relations department of the prosecutor's office.

During the preliminary investigation conducted by the investigative department of the National Security Service, factual data were obtained indicating that during this period, the contract serviceman received an offer from the foreign intelligence service employee to gather and pass on state and service secrets, including other military-related information, which he became aware of in the course of his service, in exchange for monetary compensation, to the detriment of the sovereignty, territorial integrity, and external security of the Republic of Armenia.

During the same period, the indicated contract serviceman collected and delivered state secret information, including the coordinates and photographs of a military base's outpost, which were made using an internet-based geolocation program, and a handwritten scheme regarding the inter-post distance to the representative of Azerbaijani intelligence services in April 2022, receiving 24,000 and 21,250 drams as payment, respectively.

Furthermore, from May 17 to 20, 2022, under the directive of the aforementioned Azerbaijani intelligence representative, he collected and handed over state secret information related to the names of combat positions, routes for wire communications, the location of the battalion command observation post, inter-post distances, and their equipment concerning the 'Communication Organization Scheme,' for which he received 48,000 drams as compensation.

Thus, the indicated contract serviceman managed to collect and deliver to foreign intelligence services state secrets and military-related information without disclosing his actions to work in favor of these services. This enabled the enemy to conduct precise calculations of forces and resources during potential combat operation planning, determine the number of forces and resources involved in carrying out tasks in various sectors, as well as predict the nature of combat tasks set for one of the units of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Armenia, including the probable scope of the tasks to be performed.

As a result, he impeded the proper execution of the tasks set before the units of the RA Armed Forces, thus committing state treason by gathering and handing over information classified as military state and service secrets and providing assistance to a foreign organization in conducting hostile activities to the detriment of the territorial integrity and external security of the Republic of Armenia.

The supervising prosecutor has decided to initiate public criminal proceedings against the contract serviceman under Article 299, Part 1 of the RA Criminal Code, adopted on April 18, 2003. He has been formally charged, and based on the decision of the first-instance court of general jurisdiction of Yerevan, he has been remanded in custody as a precautionary measure. The preliminary investigation of the criminal case has been completed, and on December 22, 2022, the prosecutor's supervising decision confirmed the indictment, with the materials of the criminal proceedings transferred to the first-instance court of general jurisdiction of Tavush region.