Court revokes pretrial detention of Davit Ghazinyan

Armenia’s Anti-Corruption Court has revoked the pretrial detention of Strong Armenia party lawmaker Davit Ghazinyan. The court also granted the defence’s motion not to impose any alternative preventive measure, including bail. Ghazinyan was released from the courtroom.

Earlier, the public prosecutor had requested that Ghazinyan’s detention be replaced with 1 billion drams (about $2.6 million) in bail, a travel ban and administrative supervision through electronic monitoring.

The court also ruled that precedents set by the Administrative Court and the Constitutional Court apply in Ghazinyan’s case, meaning that parliamentary immunity is applicable to him.

On July 21, 2026, the prosecutor referred the criminal case against Ghazinyan, a parliamentary candidate from the Strong Armenia alliance, to the Anti-Corruption Court with an approved indictment.

According to the Anti-Corruption Committee, the investigation found that Ghazinyan, acting in prior agreement with A.M., who allegedly coordinated the work of the alliance’s campaign office in Yerevan, supporter A.S., and other individuals, had prepared to distribute bribes to voters in exchange for votes for the Strong Armenia alliance in the parliamentary elections held on June 7, 2026.

Investigators allege that, to carry out the plan, Ghazinyan handed 1.4 million drams to A.S. to be used for vote-buying. However, the alleged scheme was not completed due to disagreements among the participants over how the money would be distributed to voters, circumstances which investigators said were beyond Ghazinyan’s control. The money was later transferred to A.M.

Public criminal prosecutions have also been initiated against A.M., A.S., L.S., S.H., G.H., H.G. and P.J. on charges related to vote-buying, preparation to commit vote-buying and accepting election bribes.

The case materials, together with the approved indictment, were referred to the Anti-Corruption Court on July 21, 2026.

Earlier, Ghazinyan had been placed in pretrial detention for two months.

He was arrested on June 17 on charges of preparing to commit vote-buying. Before his arrest, Armenia’s Central Election Commission had granted the Prosecutor General’s Office’s motions seeking consent to initiate criminal proceedings against him and to deprive him of his liberty.