The judge presiding over Ashotian’s trial, Vahe Dolmazian, ruled that he will remain in custody for another three months. Dolmazian refused to move him to house arrest despite hefty bail offered by the defendant and guarantees of his “proper behavior” formally offered by two former speakers of the Armenian parliament.
Ashotian, 48, was an influential figure during former President Serzh Sarkisian’s rule, serving as education minister from 2012-2016 and subsequently heading the Armenian parliament’s foreign relations committee. He has been a vocal critic of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian ever since the 2018 “velvet revolution” that toppled Sarkisian.
Ashotian was charged in November 2022 with abuse of power and money laundering in connection with his past chairmanship of the Board of Trustees of Yerevan’s Mkhitar Heratsi Medical University. The accusations, strongly denied by him, stem from a number of property acquisitions carried out by the university administration on his alleged orders. Armenia’s Investigative Committee claims that those deals caused the state-run university substantial financial damage.
The law-enforcement agency also charged Ashotian with “waste” of public funds following his arrest in June 2023 which it attributed to his alleged attempts to obstruct its investigation. The oppositionist, who is a deputy chairman of Sarkisian’s Republican Party (HHK), denies this accusation as well.
The presiding judge accepted a trial prosecutor’s claim that Ashotian could still influence important witnesses in the case, who have not yet testified at the trial, if set free or placed under house arrest.
“There is no evidence that I obstructed the investigation,” insisted Ashotian. “The authorities are concerned that they are unable to make the public believe that this case is not political.”
The jailed oppositionist again claimed that Pashinian ordered his arrest and prosecution as part of a personal vendetta resulting from his harsh criticism of the prime minister. The former ruling HHK and other opposition groups have likewise condemned the criminal case against Ashotian as government retribution. The prosecutors who brought the case deny executing government orders.