YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 28, ARMENPRESS.  The preliminary investigation into a criminal case initiated by the Special Investigation Committee of Armenia proved that former Mayor of Yerevan Yervand Zakharyan and another municipality official abused their official powers which led to grave consequences.

Particularly, the 10 thousand square meters of territory which was part of Victory Park  was illegally left out of the park's territory by the decision of the then Mayor Yervand Zakharyan in 2008. Afterwards, the land was sold for only 164 million AMD to ''Golden Palace'' Hotel.

As ARMENPRESS was informed from the press service of the Special Investigation Service, in 2015 the hotel pledged the mentioned land to one of the commercial banks operating in Armenia and received a loan of US $ 2,800,000. Later, by a range of agreements signed between the bank and the hotel the amount of the loan reached 12 billion AMD, which is 70fold more than the price for obtaining the land.  

Preliminary investigation is underway.

Edited and translated by Tigran Sirekanyan