Azatutyun.am. Armen Ashotyan, a prominent opposition politician, was arrested on Thursday eight months after being indicted on what he and his Republican Party of Armenia (HHK) call trumped-up charges.
Ashotyan, 47, was an influential figure during HHK leader and former President Serzh Sarkisian’s rule, serving as education minister from 2012-2016 and subsequently heading the Armenian parliament’s foreign relations committee. He has been a vocal critic of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian since the 2018 “velvet revolution” that toppled Sarkisian.
Ashotyan was charged last November with abuse of power and money laundering in connection with his past chairmanship of the Board of Trustees of Yerevan’s Mkhitar Heratsi Medical University. He was not taken into custody at the time and was only banned from leaving the country.
The accusations strongly denied by Ashotyan stem from a number of property acquisitions carried out by the university administration on his alleged orders. Armenia’s Investigative Committee claims that those deals caused the state-run university substantial financial damage.
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The law-enforcement agency also charged Ashotyan with “waste” of public funds as it detained him on Thursday morning. It promptly asked a court in Yerevan to allow his pre-trial arrest.
In a statement issued later in the day, the Investigative Committee claimed that Ashotyan must be held in detention because he illegally tried to gain access to testimony given by several other suspects in the case. It gave no details of the alleged interference in the investigation.
The HHK, of which Ashotyan is a deputy chairman, voiced full support for him and condemned his arrest as an act of “political persecution.” In a statement, the former ruling party’s governing body said Armenia’s political leadership ordered it to “divert the public’s attention from internal and external problems worsening day by day.” Representatives of other opposition groups added their voice to the condemnation.
Ashotyan’s lawyer, Tigran Atanesian, described the accusations brought against his client as “ridiculous” when he spoke to RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
“Money was not lost,” Atanesian said. “Money was converted into real estate, which now belongs to the Medical University and is worth twice as much as it was during the acquisition.”
The lawyer also said that Ashotyan has not been questioned by investigators for almost eight months.
