Details Released on Charges Against Sisian Mayor

In the investigation into the case of fraud discovered at the Sisian community administration, Sisian community leader Arthur Sargsyan was arrested today, July 17, 2021, on charges of committing official forgery and abusing his office. This announcement was made by the Investigation Committee of the Republic of Armenia.

It was previously reported that Arthur Sargsyan, who has held the position of mayor of Sisian since October 7, 2016, misused his official position contrary to the interests of the service for selfish and personal motives. At his initiative, in December 2016, approximately 10,000,000 AMD was allocated from the Sisian community's funds for purchasing needs, leading to the organization of heating system installation works at the municipal non-profit organization “Emma Asyan Children’s Music School.”

For this purpose, a competition evaluation commission was formed by the decision of A. Sargsyan, which recognized a company belonging to a close relative of the Sargsyan family as the winner of the competition, offering 10,230,000 AMD, despite another company submitting a proposal with a lower price of 6,598,950 AMD.

Then, based on group interests, an official document was prepared by a competent official of the municipality, which contained a falsified acceptance report about the period of the works, recording the fact of handing over the contract's result to the client. Subsequently, the mayor of the community, Arthur Sargsyan, for personal and selfish motives, drafted and validated with his signature and seal an official document containing misleading and substantively false information regarding the completion act for the heating system installation works intended for the “E. Asyan Children’s Music School” NPO.

As a result, due to the abuse of their official positions by the mayor and members of the competition commission, the community suffered a property damage of 3,631,050 AMD due to negligence affecting the community's rights and legal interests. Based on sufficient evidence, charges were brought against Arthur Sargsyan under Parts 2 and 1 of Article 308 and Article 314 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Armenia, respectively. A motion was submitted to the court to select arrest as a measure of restraint, which was granted.

Notice: A suspect or accused is presumed innocent until proven guilty according to the procedure established by the Criminal Procedure Code of the Republic of Armenia by a legally binding court decision.