"Hraparak" newspaper writes:
Manvel Paramazyan, former opposition figure, founder of Vahe Hakobyan's "Reviving Armenia" party, Kajaran mayor Manvel Paramazyan, like his friend Arush Arushanyan, threw himself into the arms of the authorities and even participates in the births and weddings of KP members. After the "warm reception" and "greetings from the pillars" organized for Nikol Pashinyan in Syunik in 21, he was the first to come to his senses and greeted Anna Hakobyan with a big bunch of red roses, which gave him the opportunity to stay, take office and take a big part in the supply of ZPMK. But it turns out that the CP authorities have not yet removed the baton from his head. the criminal proceedings initiated against him in 2021 have not yet been closed. Although the court of first instance acquitted him, the prosecutor's office appealed the verdict, and the trial entered a new phase. By the way, this is also a well-thought-out manuscript: the courts acquit, the prosecutor's office appeals, but it turns out to be "powerless", in the end, "justice wins", and a person who has established cordial relations with the authorities is freed from punishment, as happened in the case of Arush Arushanyan.
As for the cases initiated against Paramazyan, the first of them refers to the frauds found in the process of expropriation of the land plots owned by the Kajaran community, taking particularly large bribes and obstructing the exercise of the free will of the voters, due to which he was even arrested in 2021, and then released on bail of 50 million drams. By the way, the former mayor of Vanadzor served 2.5 years on much milder charges. The Anti-Corruption Court of First Instance found him innocent of these charges, canceled the restraining order and returned the 50 million AMD bail, the prosecutor's office later appealed the verdict.
We learned from the "Datalex" judicial information system that the Anti-Corruption Appellate Court left unchanged the first instance acquittal decision. Then General Prosecutor Anna Vardapetyan filed a cassation appeal against the appellant's decision, which was accepted for proceedings on July 20 of this year. In the near future, the Court of Cassation will decide the fate of Manvel Paramazyan in this case. We think it will be the same as what happened to the mayor of Goris. the excuse will stand.
Along with this accusation, his name was also mentioned in a criminal case regarding the kidnapping and violence of a person that happened during the war in 2020, which has been under investigation for about 6 years. Manvel Paramazyan and 4 persons - Marat Stepanyan, Khoren Mirzoyan, Babken Hambardzumyan and Levon Hambardzumyan - are accused of kidnapping Shavarsh Margaryan with prior consent and using violence. This criminal case has also come a long way. The accused were acquitted in the court of first instance, again based on the complaint of the prosecutor's office, the Appellate Criminal Court annulled the verdict of the first instance and sent the case to the same court for a new trial. Regarding the case, we tried to talk with Hovsep Sargsyan, the defense attorney of accused Marat Stepanyan and Khoren Mirzoyan. He said that they appealed the appellant's decision to the Court of Cassation, which did not accept proceedings. "Now we have moved on to the main proceedings in the Goris court, in the proceedings of Hrach Dajunts." We were also informed that the court changed the ban on absence applied to Paramazyan in this case with bail, so that the leader of Kajaran could go abroad without hindrance.
The General Prosecutor's Office also started a proceeding against Paramazyan in the order of confiscation of illegal property. In 2024, they appealed to the court and demanded from Manvel Paramazyan and his related persons to confiscate around 1 billion drams of property and funds of illegal origin in favor of the state. This civil lawsuit is in the Anti-corruption civil court and is still being examined.
More details in today's issue of the newspaper