Arush Arushanian received a suspended six-month prison sentence and was set free on Monday nine months after being arrested on a string of charges strongly denied by him.
Arushanian was acquitted of vote buying but found guilty of assault and abuse of power at the end of a four-month trial. A court in Goris also ruled that he cannot hold any local government posts for the next five years.
Arushanian’s lawyers said that he will appeal against the verdict. They insisted that the 31-year-old can continue to serve as Goris mayor pending a higher court’s ruling on the appeal.
A spokesman for Armenia’s Office of the Prosecutor-General, Gor Abrahamian, confirmed that. “There are no obstacles right now given the fact that the judicial act has not yet taken effect,” he told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
Arushanian returned to work hours after walking free in the courtroom. A statement posted on the website of the Goris municipality said that he will chair a session of the municipal council scheduled for April 5.
The council elected last October is empowered to appoint and dismiss the head of the local community comprising Goris and surrounding villages.
An opposition bloc led by Arushanian controls 13 of the 21 seats in the council. It will therefore be in a position to install another mayor if Arushanian’s removal from office is upheld by higher courts.
Arushanian was one of the four heads of major communities of Syunik province who were arrested shortly after the June 2021 parliamentary elections on various charges rejected by them as politically motivated. They all demanded Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s resignation before joining the main opposition Hayastan alliance set up by former President Robert Kocharian in the run-up to the snap polls.