30-Year-Old Woman Blackmails 28-Year-Old Man with Knife Threat; Case Heads to Court

The preliminary investigation regarding a robbery and extortion case concerning a resident of Vanadzor has been completed in the Lori regional investigative department of Armenia’s Investigative Committee. As a result of ongoing investigative and procedural actions during the pre-trial phase, several circumstances of the case have been clarified.

On March 20, 2020, a 30-year-old woman from Vanadzor met a 28-year-old man through the Odnoklassniki social media platform. The investigation revealed that after establishing an intimate relationship, on March 27, 2020, around 16:00, the 30-year-old woman invited the man to a rented apartment. With a previously unidentified individual, and in a premeditated manner, she allegedly brandished a knife to instill panic and fear and demanded the man pay her a total of 1,257,000 AMD, threatening to disclose compromising information and videos. As a guarantee, she took his identification card and service certificate, thus committing extortion.

Additionally, it was revealed that in collaboration with the unidentified individual, the woman explicitly stole the cash that the victim had on him. Based on sufficient evidence gathered during the investigation, the 30-year-old woman from Vanadzor has been charged under Articles 182, Part 2, Clauses 1, 2, and 3.1 of the Criminal Code of Armenia (extortion) and Article 176, Part 2, Clause 1 (robbery). The investigation's conclusion has been declared, and the indictment has been sent to court.

Meanwhile, the part of the investigation concerning the unidentified individual has been separated and continues in a separate process. Efforts are being made to ascertain the identity of that individual, to locate him, and present him to the prosecutorial authorities.