Chief of the Border Checkpoint in the 'Bavra' Case Released from Detention

The Court of Appeals, presided over by Judge Mher Arghamanyan, has granted a petition from the lawyer of D. Hakobjanyan, the chief of the border checkpoint involved in the 'Bavra' case, against the decision to detain him. This was reported to 'Factinfo' by Hakobjanyan's lawyer, Gor Mikayelyan. According to the lawyer, the court's decision was expected, as various violations had been raised repeatedly.

The 'Bavra' border checkpoint case created a significant uproar following statements made by the Prime Minister during a government meeting. Recall that on February 6, during a cabinet meeting, the Prime Minister announced that a major smuggling incident had been uncovered at the Bavra checkpoint, involving several customs service employees. Shortly thereafter, the National Security Service (NSS) issued an official statement, which indicated that the chief of the 'Bavra' checkpoint and two customs inspectors had agreed to accept a bribe equivalent to 3,000 USD, amounting to 1,436,610 AMD, from the owner of a freight transport company on January 25, 2020, in exchange for allowing approximately 4.5 tons of goods transported from Georgia to pass through customs without proper oversight and documentation.

As previously reported, on February 8, the Yerevan Court of General Jurisdiction, presided over by Judge H. Manukyan, had rejected the NSS investigator's request to detain the chief. However, the NSS continued to hold him in detention even after the 72 hours following his arrest had passed. The investigator submitted a new request for detention without altering the scope of the charges, which was assigned to Judge Mnatsakan Martirosyan. The second request was ultimately granted.