The brother of Armenia’s embattled former Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamian was released from pre-trial custody on Wednesday two months after being charged with illegal arms possession.
The National Security Service (NSS) arrested Henrik Abrahamian on August 8 after raiding a former industrial plant in his native village of Mkhchian and finding three machine guns, seven Kalashnikov assault rifles and other firearms stashed there.
The NSS and the Special Investigative Service (SIS) said at the time that they are trying to determine whether the weapons were used against opposition protesters in Yerevan in the wake of a disputed 2008 presidential election. The SIS chief, Sasun Khachatrian, admitted late last week that they have found no evidence of that.
An Armenian court then agreed to Henrik Abrahamian on bail. Both he and his once influential brother deny any connection to the confiscated weapons.
In early September, Hovik Abrahamian was charged with abuse of power and illegal entrepreneurial activity. Another law-enforcement agency, the Investigative Committee, claimed that in 2008 he forced a businessman to give up a majority stake in a mining company. Investigators refrained from arresting him.
Abrahamian, who served as prime minister from 2014-2016, denied the charges as politically motivated, saying that the new Armenian authorities are cracking down on dissent.
Abrahamian, 60, held high-ranking state posts and developed extensive business interests during former Presidents Robert Kocharian’s and Serzh Sarkisian’s tenures. He managed Sarkisian’s 2008 and 2013 presidential election campaigns.
Abrahamian fell out with Sarkisian a few months after being sacked by the latter in September 2016. He left Sarkisian’s Republican Party (HHK) in January 2017.
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