A Yerevan court released Aram Azatian from custody after he agreed to post $77,000 bail. It is not clear whether he will plead guilty to the accusations. His lawyer refused to comment.
Details of the criminal case opened by Armenia’s Investigative Committee remained scant, with the law-enforcement agency refusing to even name any of the eight suspects facing various accusations, including bribery and abuse of power. It said that four of them, including Azatian’s deputies, are under arrest pending investigation.
The court refused to allow the investigators to arrest another man, Hayk Galoyan, who owns the construction company El-Stroy Group. Galoyan’s lawyer, Aleksandr Kochubayev, told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service that he was charged with defrauding the Arabkir district administration of 20 million drams ($51,500).
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.
One of the arrested suspects, Levon Safarian, is the deputy executive director of an ice cream firm called Pink Berry. According to his lawyer Hovsep Sargsian, Safarian is accused of arranging for the Arabkir mayor to accept a hefty bribe.
“That bribe was never paid,” said Sargsian. “Levon Safarian did not even reach such an agreement with the Arabkir mayor, the alleged recipient of the bribe.”
According to Armenian media reports, Azatian is a figure close to Yerevan Mayor Tigran Avinian, who reappointed him as district chief last October. Avinian has not yet commented on the criminal investigation.