Kerobian was forced to resign on February 14 two days before being charged with abuse of power and put under house arrest. The accusations stem from a procurement tender organized by the Armenian Ministry of Economy last year.
A court in Yerevan invalidated in June 2023 the ministry’s decision to declare a major software company, Synergy International Systems, the winner of the tender. Armenia’s Investigative Committee says that Kerobian and other ministry officials rigged the tender in a bid to grant a $1 million procurement contract to Synergy “at any cost.” The former minister denies that.
The U.S.-registered company, whose owner Ashot Hovanesian was also indicted in the probe, has rejected the claims too. Hovanesian was arrested in February and set free on bail three weeks later.
The Office of the Prosecutor-General announced late on Wednesday that the six other suspects in the high-profile case will avoid trial. It said that one of them, a Ministry of Economy employee, has been cleared of any wrongdoing while the others have confessed to the accusations levelled against them and cooperated with investigators.
The latter include former Deputy Economy Minister Ani Ispirian as well as a current and a former Synergy executives accused of helping ministry officials rig the tender. One of them, Ani Gevorgian, is the sister-in-law of Armenian parliament speaker Alen Simonian. Gevorgian was held in detention for about two weeks.
The prosecutors did not explain why they have also not dropped the accusations brought against Kerobian and Hovanesian. The Synergy owner’s lawyer, Gor Ohanian, said on Thursday that his client has not been offered any deal by the investigators and continues to deny the accusations.
“No new investigative action involving Mr. Hovanesian has been carried out,” Ohanian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
A lawyer for Kerobian said that the ex-minister, who remains under house arrest, also keeps protesting his innocence. The lawyer earlier criticized the corruption investigation as deeply flawed.