A prominent Armenian businessman prosecuted on corruption charges has appealed to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) after law-enforcement authorities in Yerevan refused to allow him to undergo medical treatment abroad.
The millionaire businessman, Samvel Mayrapetian, was arrested and charged with “assisting in bribery” in October. Armenia’s Special Investigative Service (SIS) has still not publicized details of the accusations. The tycoon had greatly benefited from close ties with the country’s former governments.
An Armenian court freed Mayrapetian on bail on December 27. He has remained in a Yerevan hospital since then.
Immediately after his release Mayrapetian requested the SIS’s permission to leave for Germany for health reasons. The law-enforcement body refused to return his passport.
Mayrapetian’s lawyers responded by asking the ECHR on January 2 to order the Armenian authorities to allow his treatment in a German clinic.
The lawyers said on Monday that the Strasbourg court has accepted the lawsuit and asked the Armenian Justice Ministry to explain the investigators’ refusal to let the suspect leave the country. A ministry spokesperson confirmed the information on Tuesday.
One of the lawyers, Karen Batikian, told RFE/RL’s Armenian service that his client is suffering from a life-threatening form of pancreatitis that requires urgent surgery. He insisted that Armenian hospitals lack modern equipment needed for such an operation.
“His life is really in very serious danger,” said Batikian. “We have documents signed by doctors certifying that this disease cannot be cured in Armenia.”
Batikian said later in the day that the SIS has handed the passport back to Mayrapetian but made clear that he will still not be allowed to fly to Germany.
Mayrapetian is one of Armenia’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 former President Robert Kocharian. Some media outlets for years linked Kocharian’s elder son Sedrak to the Toyota dealership.
Kocharian is currently held in pretrial detention, having been charged in connection with the deadly breakup of post-election opposition protests in March 2008. He denies the accusations as politically motivated.