Armenia’s Anti-Corruption Committee (ACC) kept refusing to explain why it detained Davit Dallakian, the acting head of the municipality’s architecture and urban development department, and Seyran Mejlumian, who served as chief of the municipality staff until this week.
Sources told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service that the two men are facing criminal charges stemming from the sale of municipal property which was allegedly grossly undervalued by them.
Another senior local government official, Taron Miroyan, was also indicted as part of the same criminal case. All three suspects did not return phone calls on Tuesday.
Mejlumian tendered his resignation right after Yerevan Mayor Sargsian, who had appointed him to that position, stepped down on Friday.
Isabella Abgarian, an independent member of the city council, said that a Yerevan resident recently alerted her about a dubious privatization deal administered by the mayor’s office before filing a complaint to law-enforcement authorities.
“I don’t exclude that [the indictments] were made within the framework of the same case,” Abgarian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
“I had a chance to raise the matter with the mayor [Sargsian,] and he said, ‘I don’t believe it because Seyran Mejlumian is a very honest man, my most trusted official,’” she said.
The ex-mayor has not yet publicly commented on the indictments. It is not clear whether he has been questioned by the ACC.
Sargsian’s resignation is widely seen as being part of the ruling political team’s preparations for municipal elections that are due to be held in September. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s Civil Contract party has nominated Deputy Mayor Tigran Avinian as its mayoral candidate.