A spokesman for the Investigative Committee, Gor Abrahamian, told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service on Tuesday that Nver Tsarukian and his four bodyguards are wanted for “hooliganism and robbery.”
Abrahamian gave few details of the incident that occurred at a casino in the resort town of Tsaghkadzor. He confirmed that gunshots were fired during the incident but said they did not injure anyone.
Nver Tsarukian denied the charges through his lawyer, Emin Khachatrian. The latter admitted that one of the bodyguards took away footage of the incident filmed by the casino’s security cameras. But he said this did not amount to theft or robbery.
Khachatrian also revealed that his client left Armenia two days after the incident. He claimed Tsarukian Jr. travelled abroad on a business trip, rather than fled justice. The lawyer would not say when the suspect will return to the country.
Khachatrian also said that three of the bodyguards surrendered to investigators late last week while the other will do so on his return to Armenia on Friday.
Gagik Tsarukian has not yet publicly commented on the arrest warrant. The 67-year-old tycoon is the founding leader of the Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK) that was the leading opposition force in the former Armenian parliament. It challenged Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and demanded his resignation even before the 2020 war in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Tsarukian was charged with vote buying and arrested in September 2020 just days before the outbreak of the war. The BHK leader, who rejected the accusations as politically motivated, was freed on bail one month later.
Tsarukian has kept a low profile since his party failed to win any parliament seats in the last general elections held in June 2021. In November 2023, the Armenian authorities moved to confiscate hundreds of millions of dollars worth of assets belonging to him and his family. They invoked a controversial law that allows them to seize money, properties and companies deemed to have been acquired illegally.