FORMER ARMENIA WRESTLING CHAMP FOUND GUILTY OF KIDNAPPING BUSINESS ASSOCIATE IN CALIFORNIA

Associated Press
9:15 PM PDT, May 10, 2010
LOS ANGELES (AP)

A former Armenia wrestling champion has been convicted of kidnapping
a man, beating him and demanding $1 million ransom.

A federal jury in Los Angeles found Vagan Adzhemyan (EDZ’-ih-mee-an)
guilty on Monday. His first trial last year ended with a mistrial
after the jury deadlocked.

The 42-year-old Adzhemyan admitted kidnapping Sandro Karmryan,
beating him, shocking him with a stun gun, holding him captive for
days and demanding a $1 million ransom from his family. Authorities
say the kidnapping conspiracy ended with a SWAT team rescue of the
near-death victim.

The Armenian-born Adzhemyan argued his actions were necessary because
Karmryan was plotting to have him killed because he knew about an
alleged loan scam.

Adzhemyan was a champion wrestler in Armenia and the Soviet Union in
the 1980s.

His friend Galvin Gibson also was convicted in the plot.