Criminal Prosecution Against Former Mayor and City Hall Official Dropped

The criminal prosecution against former Yerevan mayor Yervand Zakaryan and the former head of the city hall's architecture and urban planning department, Arsen Lalayan, has been dropped due to the expiration of the statutory period.

This decision comes after it was established that these officials were involved in the sale of a public land parcel, part of the "Victory" Park, which was valued at 2,990,000,000 AMD. The 10,000 square meter area, not subject to alienation, was sold directly to a private company for a cadastral value of 164,760,000 AMD, which unjustly deprived the public of significant national parkland.

According to the Special Investigation Service, given that the statutory period for holding these individuals criminally responsible has expired, they applied to the investigating authority and stated that they do not object to the cessation of the criminal prosecution against them on the basis of the expiration of the statutory limit. Consequently, a decision was made by the investigator of the RA Special Investigation Service to terminate the prosecution under Part 2 of Article 308 of the RA Criminal Code on these grounds.