Yerevan court issues verdict in 2015 coup d'état plot, syndicate ringleader sentenced to 13 years in prison

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 10, ARMENPRESS. Judge Mesrop Makyan of the Yerevan Court of General Jurisdiction issued the verdict in the case of the “Nork armed group” – the syndicate which was plotting a coup d'état in Armenia in 2015.

The syndicate was dubbed the Nork Marash armed group because they were apprehended in a home located in the Nork Marash district.

The syndicate was led by ringleader Arthur Vardanyan.

Vardanyan was found guilty on all charges and was given a 13-year sentence.

Another member of the syndicate, Anton Totonjyan, was handed a suspended 9-year sentence.

Notably, Vahan Shirkhanyan, a former deputy minister of defense also charged in the case, was acquitted on charges of being a member of the criminal syndicate and illegally acquiring firearms. However, he was found guilty in assisting the plot of a coup d'état. The judge gave him a 6-year sentence but he won’t be imprisoned because he fell under the declared pardon.

Back in 2015 Armenian intelligence agencies said the syndicate was plotting to down the presidential aircraft, attack the presidential residence, the governmental HQ, the Parliament Seat, the Constitutional Court building and other government buildings and seize power.

All members of the syndicate were arrested in November 2015, when SWAT teams of the National Security Service stormed the compound of the syndicate in Yerevan’s Nork Marash district.

More than 30 suspected were charged in connection with the case.