Wednesday,
Corruption Case Dropped Against Former Yerevan Mayor
• Naira Bulghadarian
Armenia -- Minister of Energy Yervand Zakharian at a press conference in
Yerevan, 14 Jan, 2015
Citing the statute of limitations, investigators have dropped a corruption case
against a former mayor of Yerevan accused of illegally privatizing municipal
land at a knockdown price.
The Special Investigative Service (SIS) said in September that it has evidence
that in 2008 then Mayor Yervand Zakharian made a “baseless and illegal” decision
to sell a 10,000-square-meter green area to an obscure private firm that
subsequently built a luxury hotel there.
The area was then part of Yerevan’s largest and most popular public park. It was
“not subject to privatization,” according to the SIS.
The SIS said that the company bought the plot from the municipal administration
for only 165 million drams ($346,000), far less than its market value which the
law-enforcement body estimated at almost 3 billion drams. It launched a criminal
investigation into an apparent abuse of power committed by Zakharian and another
former municipality official.
The SIS announced on Wednesday that it has decided to close the criminal case
due to the statute of limitations. It said both suspects have accepted the
decision and will not insist on being formally cleared of any wrongdoing.
The SIS said it also asked Armenian prosecutors to consider demanding that a
Yerevan court annul the 2008 deal and confiscate the property built in the park.
Zakharian was Yerevan’s government-appointed mayor from 2003-2009. He went on to
run the Armenian government’s Real Estate Cadaster Committee before being
appointed as energy minister in 2014 by then President Serzh Sarkisian. He held
that post until 2016.
Karabakh Still Freer Than Azerbaijan, Says U.S. Watchdog
Nagorno-Karabakh -- A rally at Renaissance Square in Stepanakert, August 5, 2019.
Nagorno-Karabakh remains a “partly free” territory with a more democratic and
pluralistic political system than in Azerbaijan, Freedom House said in an annual
survey released on Wednesday.
The U.S. human rights group also said that the 2018 “Velvet Revolution” in
Armenia has contributed to greater respect for “political rights” and “civil
liberties” in Karabakh.
“The political opening in Armenia that began with [Nikol] Pashinian’s long-shot
rise to the premiership in 2018 had a positive effect on the disputed territory
of Nagorno-Karabakh during 2019,” reads the latest “Freedom In the World” survey
of more than 200 countries and territories rated on a 100-point scale.
“There was an increase in competition and civil society activity surrounding
local elections in September, and the stage was set for further changes in the
[March] 2020 elections for Nagorno-Karabakh’s president and parliament,” it says.
As a result, Freedom House gave 34 points to Karabakh, up from 31 in 2019.
Armenia received 53 points. It is one of the three “partly free” ex-Soviet
states where the New York-based watchdog saw “some positive signs” in the past
year. The survey says that the leaders of Ukraine, Moldova and Armenia “took
initial steps to uproot the kleptocratic forces that have long stymied their
countries’ democratic aspirations.”
By contrast, Azerbaijan was again rated “not free,” with Freedom House lowering
its score from 11 to 10.
“Power in Azerbaijan’s authoritarian regime remains heavily concentrated in the
hands of Ilham Aliyev, who has served as president since 2003, and his extended
family,” says the report. “Corruption is rampant, and the formal political
opposition has been weakened by years of persecution. The authorities have
carried out an extensive crackdown on civil liberties in recent years, leaving
little room for independent expression or activism.”
The Azerbaijani government had condemned Freedom House’s earlier evaluations of
Azerbaijan and especially Karabakh, saying that they highlight the watchdog’s
“biased attitude towards Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity.” Baku did not
immediately react to the latest global survey.
Freedom House upgraded the status of the Armenian-populated unrecognized
republic, which broke away from Azerbaijani rule in the early 1990s, from “not
free” to “partly free” in 2013. It attributed that to a “competitive”
presidential election held in Karabakh in 2012.
The upcoming elections are expected to be the most democratic, competitive and
unpredictable in Karabakh’s history.
Arrest Warrant Sought For 'Fugitive' Tycoon
• Gayane Saribekian
Armenia - Businessman Samvel Mayrapetian at the official opening of his Toyota
car dealership in Yerevan, 23 June 2009.
Law-enforcement authorities on Wednesday asked a court in Yerevan to issue a
fresh arrest warrant for a prominent Armenian businessman who was allowed to
receive medical treatment abroad after being indicted more than a year ago.
The businessman, Samvel Mayrapetian, was arrested in October 2018 on charges of
“assisting” in large-scale bribery alleged by a fellow entrepreneur, Silva
Hambardzumian.
Hambardzumian claimed to have transferred millions of dollars in cash to former
Presidents Robert Kocharian and Serzh Sarkisian and another former official
through Mayrapetian in 2008. The latter strongly denied the allegation before
being freed on bail in December 2018.
In January 2019, the Special Investigative Service (SIS) reluctantly allowed
Mayrapetian to undergo treatment in Germany. He promised to return to Armenia
after recuperating from a life-threatening form of pancreatitis.
The SIS said afterwards that it expects Mayrapetian to fly back to Yerevan by
October 15, 2019. His lawyers claimed later in October that he was hospitalized
again in Germany due to another deterioration of his condition.
According to the SIS, the tycoon has since ignored, on “unsubstantiated”
grounds, more orders to present himself before investigators. The
law-enforcement body accused him of using his disease as an excuse to avoid
returning to Armenia.
The SIS announced on Wednesday that it has launched a formal hunt for
Mayrapetian and requested a court permission to arrest him again.
Mayrapetian’s lawyer, Karen Batikian, insisted that his client still has serious
health problems and is not hiding in Europe.
“I talked to him one month ago,” Batikian told RFE/RL’s Armenian service. “He
said he is going to undergo another surgery.”
The SIS move may also spell trouble for two individuals who guaranteed in
writing that Mayrapetian will come back to the country once his treatment in a
German clinic is complete. Those are Ruben Fanarjian, a senior professor at the
Armenian State Medical University, and Rev. Vahram Melikian, a spokesman for the
Armenian Apostolic Church.
Under Armenian law, Fanarjian and Melikian will risk fines or up to two years in
prison if investigators claim and prove that they “malevolently” helped
Mayrapetian escape justice. Neither man could be reached for comment.
In January 2019, Fanarjian and Melikian also deposited 15 million drams
($31,000) each in support of their guarantee. The SIS can now confiscate the sum.
Mayrapetian, 60, is one of Armenia’s leading real estate developers who also
owns a national TV channel and a car dealership. Some media outlets had for
years linked Kocharian’s elder son Sedrak to the Toyota dealership.
Kocharian is currently under arrest and on trial, having been charged in July
2018 in connection with the 2008 post-election violence in Yerevan. The
ex-president was also charged with bribe-taking one year ago. He rejects all
accusations as politically motivated.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2020 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.