VIDEO: Former ANC Member Tigran Arakelyan Arrested, Investigative Committee

The Investigative Committee of the Republic of Armenia has obtained facts during the pre-trial investigation of a criminal case regarding Tigran Arakelyan, who in 2014, in preliminary agreement with a close woman, established intimate relations with a man through the ‘Arpine Avagyan’ profile he created and used on Facebook, with the intention of extorting money from him.

During online communication via the Skype application, the woman close to him engaged the man in intimate conversations, seducing him and prompting him to undress in front of the camera. At the same time, T. Arakelyan recorded a video of the man in this state while communicating with his close woman through a specially installed program.

Later, in May 2015, the man received a link to the video of their intimate conversation sent from an account named “Esmira Aliyeva” by T. Arakelyan on his Facebook. Minutes later, Tigran Arakelyan called the man and during their conversation demanded a ransom of $5000, equivalent to 2,385,500 AMD, threatening to publish the video containing embarrassing information if he did not comply, which the man refused.

In addition, T. Arakelyan, having close ties with Vardan Ghukasyan (also known as Dog), who is a co-defendant in the criminal proceedings, after a judge of the first instance general jurisdiction criminal court approved the request to apply detention as a preventive measure against Artak Galstyan, the leader of the Public Voice party, aimed at influencing the issuance of potentially unfavorable court acts regarding him, downloaded a photo of the judge from the internet in April 2023, edited it using relevant software applications, and made derogatory comments regarding the judge on it. He then sent the photo to Vardan Ghukasyan, who later published defamatory information about the judge during a live broadcast accessible to everyone on YouTube at the end of April 2023.

This means that by utilizing his skills in computer technology, he assisted Vardan Ghukasyan in committing a crime by providing derogatory information about the judge.

Evidence has been obtained during the investigation that T. Arakelyan, for the purpose of ensuring artificial views and scale for the videos published by Vardan Ghukasyan on social networks, used automated programs to create and manage fake accounts, thus facilitating the realization of V. Ghukasyan’s objectives and also possessed programs tailored for conducting extortions.

Based on the facts obtained, public criminal prosecution has been initiated against Tigran Arakelyan, and on June 20, 2023, he was charged under parts 2, subsection 8 and 10 of Article 258 and part 2 of Article 46-490 of the RA Criminal Code. A motion was submitted to the court to select detention as a preventive measure against him; however, the court decided to apply an alternative preventive measure of house arrest.

The decision of the first-instance general jurisdiction court has been appealed to the RA Court of Appeals, which granted the request, and detention has been selected as a preventive measure against T. Arakelyan.

Notice: The accused is considered innocent until proven guilty by a court decision that has entered into legal force in accordance with the law of the Republic of Armenia.