Civilnet
By Siranush Adamyan
A court in Armenia has ordered the two-month detention of Gyumri Mayor Vardan Ghukasyan, who faces corruption charges over allegedly soliciting a bribe to legalize an unauthorized construction. His mayoral powers were suspended following the ruling early Tuesday.
The Anti-Corruption Court held a late-night hearing before announcing the decision in the morning. Ghukasyan’s lawyer, Zaruhi Postanjyan, said the defense team has not yet received the full written verdict but intends to appeal. “He represents the opposition. It’s absurd to think he would engage in such a deal under scrutiny. This is clearly a political order,” she told reporters.
The Anti-Corruption Committee said investigators uncovered evidence that Ghukasyan and the city’s chief architect demanded a 4-million-dram ($10,000) bribe to authorize a 1,500-square-meter structure slated for demolition. The agency released what it described as audio recordings of conversations between the officials about the payment.
Ghukasyan, who denies wrongdoing, was elected mayor of Armenia’s second-largest city just six months ago after a tightly contested race, defeating the ruling Civil Contract party’s candidate through a post-election coalition. His supporters argue the charges are politically motivated.
The arrest came shortly after Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan vowed that his government would not allow “anyone to undermine Armenia’s sovereignty”—a statement widely interpreted as a response to Ghukasyan’s earlier call for Armenia to join the Russia–Belarus Union State. Pashinyan had warned that such statements “will be countered by all legal means.”
Many in Armenia view Ghukasyan’s detention as part of an uneven application of justice, where government critics are targeted while allies remain untouched. Critics point to the lack of prosecutions in the case of the state-owned Armenia National Interests Fund (ANIF), where tens of millions of dollars in alleged mismanagement have been reported. The fund was previously led by Yerevan Mayor Tigran Avinyan, a close Pashinyan ally.
Human rights activist and founder of the Njar political movement Nina Karapetyants accused the authorities of turning the justice system into “a machine of self-preservation fueled by fear, impunity and lies.” In a lengthy Facebook post, she wrote that Ghukasyan’s case “is not about democracy, nor rule of law, nor justice—it’s the result of having no independent constitutional institutions left in the country.”
Former ombudsman Arman Tatoyan, now leader of the Wings of Unity political movement, issued a sharply worded statement describing the episode as “an imitation of a fight against corruption for political dividends.” He said the ruling Civil Contract party has “turned the state into an instrument of partisan control” and accused it of using law enforcement bodies as “predators” to track and intimidate opponents.
According to Tatoyan, the ruling party routinely leaks audio and video materials against its critics to create a media spectacle and “portray political repression as an anti-corruption victory.” The Gyumri case, he said, “fits perfectly into this pattern,” adding that the episode would be reported to foreign embassies and international organizations “as an example of how Armenia’s authorities mislead their international partners.”
Stories
