Vano Siradegyan, 54, former Armenian interior minister...

Vano Siradegyan, 54, former Armenian interior minister and Republican Member of Parliament, was placed under arrest by a Court of First Instance in Yerevan. The ruling was to be enforced if the Armenian prosecutor-general made the appropriate application to the Armenian Parliament and gained its agreement to the deputy's arrest. He was stripped of his parliamentary immunity on February 17, 1999 and charged under 10 articles of the Armenian Criminal Code. The charges against him and former subordinates include banditry, organizing the murders of several officials who got in his way or in the way of other members of the former Armenian leadership, and abuse of office. Vano Siradegyan was one of the most influential members of the Armenian leadership until Levon Ter-Petrosyan stood down as president at the end of January 1998. He was facing the threat of 15 years imprisonment or the death penalty.