Two Armenians arrested by Georgian authorities in a sting operation in March, 2010, for smuggling highly enriched uranium into the country, have been sentenced by a Tbilisi court.

Businessman Smbat Tonoyan and physician Hrant Ohanyan were sentenced to 13 and 14 years respectively. During the trial in Tbilisi, it was revealed that Tonoyan had demanded $8 million from a prospective buyer for 120 grams of the enriched uranium but later dropped the asking price to $1.5 million.

The two had concealed 17 grams of the material in a lead lined Marlboro cigarette package before boarding a train from Yerevan to Tbilisi. They were going to see someone who “was a member of a group interested in the nuclear material”.

In fact, the unidentified “buyer” was an agent of the Georgian Special Services.

A meet was scheduled in the hotel room where the Armenians were staying. The 17 grams would be shown to the buyer as a sample of the product in their possession. The buyer shows up and the 17 grams are handed over for inspection. At that moment, Georgian law enforcement rushes into the room.

Smbat Ohanyan was once a successful businessman who is said to have squandered his money at the casinos. His son, Samvel Tonoyan, is a member of the RA Special Investigative Service and is reported to have had a hand in the criminal cases initiated after the events of March 1, 2008.

Hrant Ohanyan worked at the Yerevan Physics Institute’s cosmic radiation division from 1975-1995.  Ashot Chilingarian, the director of the Yerevan Physics Institute, stated after the arrests that Ohanyan had no contact with the Institute after leaving.

During the pre-trial investigation, Tonoyan and Ohanyan said that they had obtained the weapons grade material from Garik Dadayan. In cooperation with Georgian authorities, Dadayan was subsequently picked up and arrested by the RA National Security Service in April, 2010. His trial is underway at the Tavoush Regional Court.

Garik Dadayan has a criminal record. Years ago, 170 grams of highly enriched U-235 was found by Georgian authorities in a car carrying Dadayan when it approached the Georgian-Armenian border.

At the time Dadayan claimed that the material was in a black plastic bag in the care and he had no knowledge what was inside. He also claimed that the Georgian authorities, seeing he was from Karabakh, attempted to extort money from him, threatening that they would hand him over to the Azerbaijanis.

Dadayan fled the Georgian crossing at Mardakhlo and was arrested in Armenia 8 months later. Armenian authorities then handed him over to Georgian law enforcement. It seems that he was only questioned and subsequently released. Dadayan then moved back to Armenia.

Garik Dadayan was arrested in February, 2004, and sentenced to a relatively light sentence of 2.5 years on uranium smuggling charges. The court took into account that Dadayan, a native of the Baloutch village in the Askeran district of the NKR, had fought in the Artsakh war vet and was on disability. He also had no criminal record.

  Dadayan maintained his innocence but never appealed the sentence. One month later, Dadayan was released from prison, the court arguing that he has already served 1/3 of the sentence.

He now faces up to 4-8 years if found guilty in the current smuggling case.

Dadayan’s lawyer Karen Sardaryan told Hetq that his client rejects the charges but refused to make any comment on the case. Sardaryan argued that he hadn’t spoken to Dadayan in the past ten times and wasn’t authorized to comment publicly.

The Tavoush Court of First Instance has accepted a motion by Sardaryan to call in Ohanyan and Tonoyan as witnesses. The trial has been postponed as a result.

The court is now waiting to see if the Georgian authorities will allow the two jailed Armenians to appear in the Tavoush court.