Lawyers Accused of Embezzlement Released

Lawyers Alina Avetisyan and Nelli Papyan, who were arrested on suspicion of embezzling a particularly large sum of money, have been released. In response to a query from Armtimes.com, the press center of the National Security Service of Armenia stated that the lawyers accepted the charges against them, and as a precautionary measure, a signature was chosen to prevent them from fleeing.

Hayk Hakobyan, the spokesperson for the Armenian Bar Association, mentioned during our conversation that the president of the association met with lawyers Nelli Papyan and Alina Avetisyan. Hakobyan stated that at this stage, the lawyers did not wish to use the legal assistance of other lawyers. “If necessary, the Bar Association will provide them with legal assistance. The issue of instituting disciplinary proceedings against the lawyers is also being discussed,” he added.

It is worth noting that the lawyers are accused of embezzling a significant amount of money through fraud. According to the NSS statement, two members of the Armenian Bar Association, by providing legal services to a convict serving a sentence in one of Armenia’s penitentiary institutions, abused the trust they had over him with the intent of taking possession of his property. They suggested that they could resolve the matter of the convict's conditional early release from punishment by offering a bribe equivalent to 7,000 USD, or 3,331,090 AMD, to an authorized official of the appellate court.

Under this pretext, while receiving the claimed large sum under the supervision of the NSS's operational units, the lawyers fraudulently embezzled the money. A sum of 6,800 USD was discovered in one of the lawyer's apartments during a search conducted by NSS employees.