Six suspects in 2015 armed syndicate case released from pre-trial detention

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 17, ARMENPRESS. Six defendants in the ongoing trial of the “Nork Marash Armed Group” case have been released from pre-trial detention today by a Yerevan court.

Lawmakers Ararat Zurabyan (Tsarukyan faction), Napoleon Azizyan (Tsarukyan faction), Hovik Aghazaryan (Yelk faction) and Lena Nazaryan (Yelk faction) submitted personal guarantees for the release of four of the suspects, while the other two were released based on approving their attorney’s request to change the measure of restraint.

The prosecutors did not object the motions.

Earlier in June, another defendant – ex deputy minister of defense Vahan Shirkhanyan - in the same case was set free.

More than 30 people are charged in the case.

The syndicate, dubbed the Nork Marash armed group, led by Arthur Vardanyan, had planned to overthrow the government at the time of their arrest in 2015, according to law enforcement agencies.

Armenian intelligence agencies earlier said the syndicate planned to down the presidential aircraft, attack the presidential residence, the governmental HQ, the Parliament Seat, the Constitutional Court building and other state buildings.

Intelligence agencies gathered the information and apprehended all members of the syndicate in November 2015, when national security agents stormed the compound of the syndicate in Yerevan’s Nork Marash district. The location of the compound was the reason why the media dubbed the syndicate – Nork Marash Armed Group.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan