Aslanian, who had governed Armenia’s third largest city for five years, was poised to regain the post of Vanadzor mayor. But two days before the inaugural session of the new city council empowered to elect the mayor, he was arrested and charged with illegally privatizing municipal land during his tenure.
The 50-year-old ex-mayor rejected the charges as politically motivated before and during his trial that began in June 2022. His lawyers repeatedly petitioned the judge presiding over the trial to release him pending a verdict in the case. The judge refused, citing witness tampering concerns expressed by prosecutors.
The lawyers filed another petition after the court heard all of the three dozen witnesses in the trial. The judge rejected it too on the grounds that he has decided to question seven more witnesses. The latter include Arkadi Peleshian, Aslanian’s controversial former deputy whom the Armenian government installed as Vanadzor’s acting mayor in 2022. Peleshian is believed to have pledged allegiance to Pashinian.
“The court invented legal grounds to keep my client in detention,” one of the defense lawyers, Arak Voskanian, told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
Ruben Melikian, a Yerevan-based legal expert and activist critical of the government, also claimed that the additional witnesses were called up with the aim of keeping Aslanian behind bars.
The Armenian authorities and the ruling Civil Contract party deny opposition claims that claim Pashinian ordered Aslanian’s arrest and prosecution to make sure that the Vanadzor municipality remains under his control. Opposition leaders have accused the prime minister of effectively overturning the local election results.
Aslanian’s opposition bloc won most votes in those elections. It was the most serious of setbacks suffered by Pashinian’s party in local polls held in 36 communities across the country on December 5, 2021.