Arsen Karoyan, the head of the municipality’s department on public utilities, was first detained and charged by the Anti-Corruption Committee (ACC) with abuse of power on March 4. A Yerevan court of first instance refused the next day to allow the ACC to hold Karoyan in detention pending investigation and freed him on bail instead.
Prosecutors appealed against that decision. The Court of Appeals agreed to overturn it, prompting criticism from Karoyan’s lawyer, Petros Petrosian.
Petrosian argued on Tuesday his client cannot obstruct the investigation because the lower court banned him from interacting with other suspects in the case. He also pointed out that some of them are under arrest.
According to Petrosian, the accusations levelled against Karoyan stem from his decisions to initially refuse but later allow the national electric utility to dig up a street section in Yerevan for laying a power supply line to a newly constructed apartment building. The lawyer said he still does not know whether Karoyan is prosecuted for rejecting or approving the utility’s request.
The ACC has said only that the official caused a 23 million-dram ($58,000) damage to the state. The law-enforcement agency has also shed light on corruption charges brought against 11 other suspects in the case.
One of them headed the municipality’s Public Order Service while the other worked at a department dealing with construction permits and land allocations. The two men were arrested in February.
At least two other corruption inquiries were launched into senior municipal officials last year. In July, investigators arrested the head of Yerevan’s northern Arabkir district, Aram Azatian, on bribery charges denied by him. In November, they raided the administration of the city’s central Kentron district and arrested four local officials on similar charges. Yerevan Mayor Tigran Avinian, who is a senior member of the ruling Civil Contract party, is not known to have been questioned in either probe.