A wealthy Armenian businessman who has benefited from government connections in the past was remanded in pre-trial custody on corruption charges late on Tuesday.
A court in Yerevan allowed the Special Investigative Service (SIS) to keep Samvel Mayrapetian under arrest for two months after he was formally charged with “assisting bribery.”
A lawyer for Mayrapetian told RFE/RL’s Armenian service (Azatutyun.am) his client denies the charge and that he will therefore appeal against the court’s decision.
The SIS has so far refused to publicize any details of the accusation. It thus remains unclear whom it accuses or suspects of accepting a bribe with the tycoon’s help.
Mayrapetian is one of the country’s leading real estate developers who also owns a national TV channel and a car dealership. His company was involved in a controversial redevelopment of old districts in downtown Yerevan during the 1998-2008 rule of President Robert Kocharian.
Media outlets critical of the former government for years linked Kocharian’s elder son Sedrak to the Toyota dealership officially belonging to Mayrapetian.
Kocharian is currently under investigation over his role in the deadly breakup of post-election demonstrations in Yerevan staged during the final weeks of his decade-long presidency. Last month, Armenia’s National Security Service (NSS) launched a separate corruption inquiry into the embattled ex-president.
The NSS director, Artur Vanetsian, said on September 11 that investigators are scrutinizing what he described as hundreds of millions of dollars worth of assets belonging to Kocharian and his family members. Vanetsian promised two weeks later that their findings will be made public “soon.”
Kocharian has denied enriching himself or his family while in office and accused the current Armenian authorities of waging a political “vendetta” against him. He has only admitted that his two sons are engaged in entrepreneurial activity.