A former mayor of Vanadzor arrested in December 2021 after defeating Armenia’s ruling party in a local election continued to strongly deny corruption charges leveled against him during his yearlong trial on Thursday.
The victory of an opposition bloc led by Mamikon Aslanian was the most serious of setbacks suffered by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s Civil Contract party in local polls held in 36 communities across the country on December 5, 2021.
Aslanian, who had governed Armenia’s third largest city for five years, was poised to regain the post of Vanadzor mayor lost in October 2021. But he was arrested on December 15, 2021, two days before the inaugural session of the new city council empowered to elect the mayor. He was charged with illegally privatizing municipal land during his tenure.
The 49-year-old ex-mayor rejected the charges as politically motivated both before and during his trial that began in June 2022.
Speaking to RFE/RL’s Armenian Service in the courtroom, Aslanian insisted that he was arrested “so that I don’t take over as mayor, which should have happened on December 17.”
“I was ‘coincidentally’ arrested on December 15, even though the criminal case was opened on September 10,” he said.
Also standing trial are two of Aslanian’s former subordinates. But unlike the ex-mayor, they have not been held in detention.
Aslanian’s supporters as well as opposition figures in Yerevan claim that Pashinian ordered the ex-mayor’s arrest and prosecution to make sure that the Vanadzor municipality remains under his control. They have accused the prime minister of effectively overturning the local election results.
Vanadzor’s new municipal council could have elected Aslanian as mayor despite his arrest. However, Armenia’s Administrative Council banned the council from holding sessions, citing an appeal against the election results lodged by another pro-government party.
In April 2022, Pashinian’s party swiftly pushed through the Armenian parliament a bill that empowered the prime minister to name acting heads of communities whose councils fail to elect mayors within 20 days after local elections. Pashinian appointed the following month a man with a criminal record, Arkadi Peleshian, as Vanadzor’s acting mayor.
Peleshian served as deputy mayor from 2017-2021. An obscure party led by him won less than 15 percent of the vote in December 2021
Source: Azatutyun.am
