BREAKING: Former Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan has appeared at the Anti-Corruption Committee with his lawyer and has been formally charged in the same criminal proceedings involving Robert Kocharyan.
His appearance follows a sweeping operation earlier Tuesday in which Robert Kocharyan and his eldest son, Sedrak Kocharyan, were arrested as law enforcement officers searched homes and businesses linked to the family.
The operation extended to Toyota’s Yerevan office, Orange Fitness and the offices of Sirusho Production, all of which were sealed. The neighboring office of Germany’s Konrad Adenauer Foundation was also sealed during the action at the Sirusho Production premises.
Hours after the arrests, authorities announced that criminal prosecution had been initiated against nine others, including Sargsyan, Sedrak Kocharyan, former Yerevan mayor Gagik Beglaryan, businessman Samvel Mayrapetyan and former Prime Minister Andranik Margaryan, who died in 2007 while still in office.
Robert Kocharyan faces nine accusations involving abuse of office, the receipt of particularly large bribes and the laundering of particularly large sums of money.
Prosecutors have asked the court to place Sedrak Kocharyan in pretrial detention, while a similar motion is expected against Robert Kocharyan. Kocharyan was later hospitalized with high blood pressure while in NSS custody. His office said he had recently undergone an undisclosed medical procedure.
The timing of the operation has drawn particular attention. Less than 24 hours before the raids and arrests, Nikol Pashinyan had a heated exchange in parliament with opposition MP Levon Kocharyan, Robert Kocharyan’s younger son.
During the same session, Pashinyan raised the assets of former presidents Robert Kocharyan and Serzh Sargsyan and publicly called on law enforcement and judicial authorities to act over property he said should be returned to the state.
Kocharyan and his supporters have denounced the proceedings as politically motivated, accusing Pashinyan’s government of using law enforcement to target and pressure political opponents.
