Kocharyan jailed

Judge S. Dadoyan of the Anti-Corruption Court has approved the investigators’ motion to place former President Robert Kocharyan, who stands accused of money laundering and bribery during the years of his presidency, in pre-trial detention, the Anti-Corruption Committee has said.

Kocharyan is charged with three counts of abuse of official powers, two counts of accepting a particularly large bribe, and four counts of particularly large-scale money laundering.

His eldest son, Sedrak, is also remanded in pre-trial detention following their arrest earlier this week. They deny wrongdoing.

The ex-president is accused of abusing his official powers to transfer state-owned property to himself and associates on favorable terms, accepting large bribes, and laundering the proceeds.