A higher court on Friday granted prosecutors’ request to revoke house arrest for Aram Azatyan, the prefect of Yerevan’s northern Arabkir district, and place him in custody.
The decision comes more than a month after Azatian, who had been detained along with his two deputies and several other people on corruption charges, was moved to house arrest after agreeing to post bail amounting to 30 million drams (nearly $77,000).
On July 4, the lower court placed Azatyan, who denies the charges against him, under house arrest for two month.
Details of the criminal case opened by Armenia’s Investigative Committee remain scarce. Andranik Sargsyan, the lawyer of one of the arrested suspects, Levon Safaryan, said that his client, who is deputy executive director of an ice cream firm called Pink Berry, is accused of arranging for the Arabkir prefect to accept a hefty bribe. The lawyer said his client does not admit the charges.
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Last month the court also refused to allow the investigators to arrest another man, Hayk Galoyan, who owns the construction company El-Stroy Group. Galoyan’s lawyer, Aleksandr Kochubayev, then informed RFE/RL’s Armenian Service that his client was charged with defrauding the Arabkir district administration of 20 million drams (over $51,000).
Kochubayev said the accusation stems from El-Stroy’s contract with the administration for the repair of entrances to apartment blocks located in Arabkir. The lawyer claimed that the case is “fabricated” not only because it is not backed up by any evidence but also because it was opened in 2021, one year before Azatian was first appointed as district chief.
According to Armenian media reports, Azatian is a figure close to Yerevan Mayor Tigran Avinyan, who reappointed him as district chief last October. Avinian denied any political motives behind the criminal investigation against the Arabkir prefect when media asked him to comment on his case late last month.
