When asked today by reporters whether he was a member of an alleged secret special group, working out of the Presidential Palace in March 2008, which was monitoring post-election protests in Yerevan and issuing directives designed to prop up the regime in power, former Armenian Deputy Prime Minister Armen Gevorgyan said he had no knowledge of any such unit.

Gevorgyan was present at today’s session of the Criminal Appeals Court that is reviewing a complaint, filed by the state prosecutor, regarding a lower court’s decision not to detain him.

Gevorgyan, charged with money laundering, accepting bribes, and obstructing justice in the wake of Armenia’s disputed 2008 presidential election, served as secretary of Armenia’s National Security Council during the crackdown on political unrest in 2008. He was appointed deputy prime minister a month later by then Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan.

Gevorgyan avoided answering many of the questions posed by reporters, and instead asked for their well-wishes.

“All the best to you. And I ask that you wish me success,” Gevorgyan said.

The former deputy prime minister said he had nothing to add or subtract from his previous pronouncements on the case, and that his lawyers would answer all remaining questions after the trial.