Armenian opposition leader charged with fraud to be held for two months

Gagik Tsarukyan, the leader of Armenia's largest opposition party, Prosperous Armenia, arrives at the parliament on June 16, 2020. (Karen Minasyan / AFP via Getty Images)

The leader of a pro-Russian Armenian opposition party was placed in pre-trial detention for two months on Tuesday after being detained on suspicion of large-scale fraud and money laundering, the Armenpress news agency reported, citing a court ruling.

Gagik Tsarukyan, a billionaire businessman, was arrested on Monday along with an associate on suspicion of fraudulently importing vehicles, machinery, fuel and other goods worth US$21 million from Iran between 2022 and 2024, Armenpress reported.

After winning re-election last month against an array of mostly pro-Russian opposition parties, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan pledged to act against what he called the “three-headed spy party of war,” referring to the three main opposition groups: Strong Armenia, the Armenia Alliance and Tsarukyan’s Prosperous Armenia.

During the campaign, Pashinyan had suggested opposition forces were threatening to drag Armenia back into war with Azerbaijan, with which it has been in conflict intermittently since the late 1980s.

Armenian investigators on Monday searched Tsarukyan’s home and some 70 other addresses linked to him and his business empire, which includes a brandy factory, a cement plant and a sports complex.

Tsarukyan’s lawyers said they would appeal any conviction, Russia’s state news agency TASS reported.

Eight opposition groups, which had alleged that last month’s election was rigged, condemned the detentions as politically motivated.

The Central Election Commission on Saturday rejected an opposition petition to overturn the election results.

Tsarukyan, a 69-year-old former world arm wrestling champion, built his fortune in gambling, mining and other sectors during the chaotic decade that followed the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, of which Armenia was a member.

(Reporting by Lucy Papachristou; Editing by Kevin Liffey)