Sarkisian, who leads a major opposition party, went on trial in 2020 for allegedly helping a longtime friend and businessman win a public procurement contract in 2013. He and several other defendants were cleared of any wrongdoing in May 2024. The judge who handed down that ruling was removed from the bench in October, ostensibly because of his handling of another trial.
Prosecutors appealed against the ruling, insisting that the allegedly privileged treatment cost the state over $1 million in losses. The Anti-Corruption Court of Appeals granted the appeal, sending the case back to the lower court.
Sarkisian and his lawyers did not immediately react to the decision. The 70-year-old ex-president, who ruled Armenia from 2008-2018, refused in 2023 to plea the statute of limitations and thus cut short his trial, insisting on his formal acquittal. He would not have gone to prison even if he had been found guilty.
Sarkisian lambasted the current Armenian government on Monday, branding it as a “world champion of lying” and saying that Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian usurped power in 2018. He said his Republican Party’s “primary objective is to get rid of the capitulatory authorities.”
Pashinian lashed out at Sarkisian and another ex-president, Robert Kocharian, in a speech and a series of social media posts last month. Just a couple of days later, prosecutors told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service that they filed new corruption charges against Sarkisian in January.
The charges stem from the privatization of state-owned land in Yerevan in 2005. Sarkisian served as defense minister at the time. His lawyers and political allies dismissed them.