Court prolongs arrest of Gyumri mayor

PanARMENIAN.Net - The pretrial detention of Gyumri Mayor Vardan Ghukasyan has been extended for two months.

During a hearing at the Anti-Corruption Court, presiding judge Levon Petrosyan said that although he takes into account Ghukasyan’s age and career, more than a dozen individuals are involved in the case. Therefore, if a different preventive measure were applied, there would be a risk of influencing other participants in the proceedings, Aravot.am reported.

Speaking during the hearing, Ghukasyan said he sees that “the case is being very well stitched together,” but added that, in his view, “depriving a person of liberty has become a source of happiness and joy for certain structures.”

The case also involves Gyumri’s chief architect Henrik Gasparyan, whose preventive measure — pretrial detention — has been replaced with house arrest.

Gasparyan, like Ghukasyan, is accused of demanding a 4 million dram bribe from businessman Sevak Gomtsyan in exchange for legalizing a self-built structure.

The Gyumri mayor denies the charges against him.

In another case currently under examination at the Anti-Corruption Court, Ghukasyan has also been accused of illegally transferring land plots during his previous tenure as mayor of Gyumri from 1999 to 2012.