Vardan Ghukasyan to be Transferred to Court, Defense Attorney

The defense attorney of Gyumri Mayor Vardan Ghukasyan, Aramais Hayrapetyan, has exited the Anti-Corruption Committee, where the mayor is currently held, and informed reporters that the investigative actions have concluded. Alongside the submission of a request to detain Ghukasyan, he will be transferred to court.

The attorney emphasized again that Vardan Ghukasyan does not accept the allegations of bribery, asserting that the described actions actually occurred outside of his term in office. “Regarding the recordings, they are out-of-context conversations that might pertain to property tax and its legalization payments. There is no mention of bribery, nor is Vardan Ghukasyan accused of receiving bribes. According to the accusation, he allegedly requested a bribe, but Mr. Ghukasyan has denied ever having a monetary conversation with anyone. Even if he wanted to, Vardan Ghukasyan could not legalize any illegal construction simply because the timeline has expired. In Gyumri, it was only possible to legalize illegal constructions until 2004,” the defense attorney stressed.

Aramais Hayrapetyan added that Ghukasyan does not acknowledge that the insults and conversations present in the circulated recordings were made by him. “Perhaps they have taken one conversation and attached it to another. In one conversation, absolutely no sound is heard; only written text is published. How can I know what these recordings are?” said the attorney.