Judge Armen Bektashyan made a decision to satisfy the petition for changing the detention as a preventive measure against Shirkhanyan, one of the Nork “armed group” case defendants. This means that former Deputy Defense Minister Vahan Shirkhanyan is released from custody and from now on he will participate in the trial not as a detainee.
He is accused of being involved in a criminal co-operation and assuming a certain role in it. His advocate Hayk Alumyan has repeatedly presented the same petition before the “My Step” people’s movement and has always been rejected. According to him, Shirkhanyan’s serious health problems were not compatible with detention.
According to the case materials, defendant Arthur Vardanyan, who is the leader of the alleged armed group, formed a criminal group of about 30 people who had accumulated weapons and ammunition to target the third Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan’s plane in 2015. Recently, three defendants, in this case, have been released from custody.
Luiza SUKIASYAN
