Ara Vardanyan to be detained again: Defense attorney Yervand Varosyan

The decision to apply bail instead of detention for Ara Vardanyan, the former head of the Armenia All-Armenian Fund, has been changed. Ara Vardanyan will now face detention. This was reported by his attorney Yervand Varosyan. Below is the full text of his statement.

“Today, based on the decision of the Yerevan City Court of General Jurisdiction, the bail previously applied to former director Ara Vardanyan has been revoked, and detention has been imposed as a measure of restraint.

A new charge has been brought against Ara Vardanyan under Article 179, Part 3 of the Criminal Code of Armenia, allegedly for embezzlement. In reality, the justification for this charge is claimed to be the fact that products from one of the enterprises under the fund were not delivered to their intended recipients, a situation in which Ara Vardanyan could not possibly have been involved. Moreover, no evidence was presented to the court by the investigative body to indicate that Ara Vardanyan could have any relation to any alleged embezzlement.

We do not consider it a coincidence that, even while the court was in its deliberation room, employees escorting Ara Vardanyan to the penal institution arrived at the court. The existence of such charges, as well as the application of detention as a measure of restraint against a person who has not violated any conditions of bail for 1 year and 3 months, clearly indicates that the reason behind all this is Ara Vardanyan's public-political activism.

Additionally, this ongoing process and the circulation of discrediting information about the Armenia All-Armenian Fund in relation to other criminal cases (including one involving an Azerbaijani individual presenting themselves as an American Armenian) provide grounds to assert that the aim is to once again strike at the Fund’s reputation ahead of the upcoming annual fundraising.”