SPECIAL CONSIDERATION? SON OF ARMENIAN AMBASSADOR GETS EARLY JAIL RELEASE ON HASHISH TRAFFICKING CONVICTION

Zaruhi Mejlumyan

20:30, December 18, 2014

Davit Vardanyan, the son of Armenia’s ambassador to Georgia, who was
found guilty this last September of trafficking and procuring hashish,
has been granted conditional early release from prison.

When the Syunik Court of Jurisdiction passed its guilty verdict,
Vardanyan had already spent a year under arrest.

This news has been verified by Gor Ghlechyan, who heads the press
division of Armenia’s Department of Corrections.

Davit Vardanyan, the 30 year-old son of Ambassador Yuri Vardanyan,
had been found guilty of attempting to smuggle the drug into Armenia
at the southern border crossing of Meghri on October 12, 2013.

Vardanyan swallowed seven grams of the drug after wrapping it in
rubber thimbles. The rest was concealed in his hand luggage.

When asked why Vardanyan had been released, and what the extenuating
circumstances were, Ghlechyan merely responded that the ambassador’s
son displayed exemplary behavior while in prison.

However, those serving time in Armenia’s correctional facilities
periodically issue complaints that the conditional release program
is fraught with problems and remains on paper only.

For example, there is the case of Aram Gatoyan, a convict who has been
denied parole on seven separate occasions, who has written to Hetq
about his plight. Mr. Gatoyan was married in prison, and has a wife,
children, and a sick mother on the outside.

Like Mr. Gatoyan, there are many who are refused parole for
incomprehensible reasons.

Others, however, seem to get special consideration.

Of note, is the case of the cousin of Syunik Governor Sourik
Khachatryan, who was granted early release from prison after being
sentenced in 2004 to twelve years for the brutal stabbing murder of
Hovhannes Badalyan.

Mayis, the governor’s cousin, was released in 2011 after serving
seven years of his sentence.

Photo: David Vardanyan, Ambassador Yuri Vardanyan