Mayor of Stepanakert acquitted
The Court of First Instance of General Jurisdiction of Yerevan has reached an acquittal verdict for the Mayor of Stepanakert, Davit Sargsyan, and five members of the city council. The information was shared by lawyer Ruben Melikyan in a Facebook post.
The decision was made after nearly a year of judicial proceedings. The Mayor of Stepanakert and the council members were accused of large-scale property embezzlement through fraud and forgery of documents.
According to the statement from the Investigative Committee, they had allegedly alienated four vehicles belonging to the Stepanakert community, valued at over 19 million AMD, using forged documents. On May 27, 2024, detention was applied as a preventive measure against Mayor Davit Sargsyan for a period of 20 days, followed by house arrest for a period of 2 months. Subsequently, the preliminary investigation body petitioned for administrative supervision; however, on January 29, 2025, it was announced that this preventive measure was also lifted, leaving only a ban on leaving the country. The latter expired on August 4.
It should be noted that in May 2024, the mayors of Martakert and Askeran were also arrested on the same charges, but the criminal prosecution against them was later terminated.
The court confirmed that the charges were not substantiated, and all defendants were acquitted.