Armenian authorities detained former President Robert Kocharyan and his son Sedrak on Tuesday as part of a corruption investigation into the alleged acquisition of state property at below-market prices. The country’s Anti-Corruption Committee said six people had been detained and alleged that the former president and people close to him used his official position to remove valuable assets from the state, acquire them at significantly reduced prices and subsequently conceal their ownership through affiliated companies.
Kocharyan’s office called the operation another “attack by the authorities against President Kocharyan and his family.”
The former president has previously rejected corruption allegations against him as politically motivated. OCCRP reported in 2019 that Kocharyan had been accused of accepting bribes while in office; his lawyer told OCCRP at the time that the allegations were fabricated. A court found there was insufficient evidence to support the corruption allegation at the level of reasonable suspicion.
