Former tax chief Gagik Khachatryan requests court to grant bail

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 23, ARMENPRESS. Former Minister of Finance and former State Revenue Committee president Gagik Khachatryan has filed a motion to court requesting to be set free from pre trial detention, the ex-politician’s lawyer Yerem Sargsyan told reporters.

Sargsyan said they are proposing to pay 230,000,000 drams (481,000 USD) in bail, if granted.

He said the court will make a ruling about the matter midday October 24.

Khachatryan’s lawyer also filed a peremptory challenge seeking the recusal of Judge Artush Gabrielyan, however the motion was denied. Khachatryan himself wasn’t in the courtroom.

The lawyer said he had filed the recusal motion because all motions regarding his client are examined by the same judge. “It is about issuing the search warrants in Khachatryan’s house and other territories, his arrest and extending the period of it,” the lawyer said.

Sargsyan said the ex-minister underwent a surgery in Germany.

“Khachatryan was in a post-surgery period when the detective called him from Armenia and summoned him. Our client came in without even having fully recovered,” he said, adding that they’ve presented medical documents to the court. The lawyer claims Khachatryan’s doctors in Germany say he needs another surgery as soon as possible or else more serious problems can appear.

However, according to the lawyer the prosecutors have requested the court to keep Khachatryan jailed in pre-trial detention.

Khachatryan was arrested and remanded into custody in late August.

He is charged with official misconduct and embezzlement during his tenure as SRC president. His nephew, also a former SRC official, is also under arrest in the same case.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan