Prosecution Demands Arrest of Deputy Director of Surmalu

The prosecution has announced that within the framework of the criminal case initiated due to the explosion and fire that occurred at the Surmalu shopping center on August 14, a supervising prosecutor has initiated public criminal prosecution against four individuals. According to Gor Abrahamyan, an adviser to the Prosecutor General of Armenia, two of the accused are charged under Article 357, Part 2 of the RA Criminal Code for violating fire safety rules, which caused death or other serious consequences due to negligence, while the other two are charged under Article 165, Part 2 for causing the death of two or more persons through negligence.

“Charges have been brought against these individuals for committing the aforementioned criminal acts, and motions have been submitted to the Yerevan city first instance court by the prosecuting authority to apply detention as a measure of restraint against them. The court decisions approved the motions for detention against three of the mentioned individuals, while the motion concerning the deputy director of the shopping center was rejected. The Yerevan Prosecutor's Office has received the full decision of the court regarding him and has studied the reasoning part of it. Due to the groundless nature of the judicial act, a cassation appeal has been filed against it today,” he stated.

The investigation into the criminal case continues on a wide scale under prosecutorial supervision. All necessary measures are being taken to clarify all circumstances of the tragic incident, identify the complete circle of guilty individuals, and fully disclose the causes of the fire and explosion. Additionally, in order to eliminate the causes of the crimes and the conditions that contributed to them, as well as to determine the presence of possible violations of fire safety and security rules in similar facilities, appropriate requests are being sent from the prosecutor's office to the relevant authorities to take effective steps to eliminate such violations if they are recorded.