YEREVAN (Noyan Tapan)–"Some day it should have happened. I’m glad that it happened now," former head of the Armenian International Assembly Serge Jilavian said in an interview with Radio Liberty–commenting on the Prosecutor General’s petition to put Vano Siradeghian on trial for plotting his assassination and murdering the culprits of that failed attempt.
A source close to Jilavian said in an interview with Radio Liberty that Siradeghian was behind the persecution of the Russian businessman–whose image as a rich national benefactor was promoted by ex-president Levon Ter-Petrosyan and Siradeghian–himself.
The source insisted that the two former leaders had viewed Jilavian as their servant. However–when Jilavian refused to fulfill Siradeghian’s demand of raise national contribution from Armenian businessmen in Moscow and transfer the entire sum to the former interior minister–Siradeghian allegedly decided to punish the "impudent rich man."
When the assassination failed–Siradeghian–according to the source–promised an employee of the Moscow department countering organized crime–Lieutenant-Colonel Garnik Voskanian that if he instituted a criminal case against Jilavian and put him in jail–he would be assigned a post of deputy interior minister in Armenia.
Voskanian fulfilled the order–however–at the time when he came to Yerevan to get his post–Siradeghian was no longer Interior Minister.rights.
