Court Reviews Prosecutor's Appeal Against Ara Vardanyan's Release on Bail

The Court of Appeals is reviewing the prosecutor's appeal against the decision to release Ara Vardanyan, former director of the Armenia All-Armenian Fund, on bail.

Before the session, Vardanyan told reporters that he does not accept the charges and believes this is political persecution. Vardanyan was released on bail of 10 million drams on December 12, 2019, when the Court of General Jurisdiction of Yerevan, presided over by Judge Vardan Grigoryan, accepted the defense's motion, allowing the application of bail.

Vardanyan was detained on charges of embezzlement or misappropriation of funds and was later released on bail. However, in early October, the National Security Service announced that a new case of theft involving Vardanyan had been uncovered, after which a motion was filed with the court for his detention, which was granted. The NSS statement specifically mentioned that the charges brought against him last July had been supplemented and amended.

According to this, Vardanyan signed a contract on October 26, 2017, to supply property worth around 150 million drams to the education departments of the administrative districts of Artsakh, but the property was never delivered, and false documents were created with the aim of misappropriating the funds withdrawn for this purpose from the fund.