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Indicted Tycoon Allowed To Leave Armenia


Armenia - Businessman Samvel Mayrapetian at the official opening of his Toyota car dealership in Yerevan, 23 June 2009.
Armenia - Businessman Samvel Mayrapetian at the official opening of his Toyota car dealership in Yerevan, 23 June 2009.

An Armenian law-enforcement agency has allowed a prominent businessman prosecuted on corruption charges to receive medical treatment in Germany one week after the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled in his favor.

The businessman, Samvel Mayrapetian, was arrested in October on charges of “assisting” in payment of a bribe worth more than $4 million. Mayrapetian, who denies the accusation, was freed on bail on health grounds late last month. He is reportedly suffering from a serious form of pancreatitis.

Immediately after his release, Mayrapetian asked the Special Investigative Service (SIS) for permission to leave for Germany. The SIS rejected the request, leading the tycoon to appeal to the ECHR.

The Strasbourg-based court ruled on January 17 that the Armenian authorities must allow Mayrapetian to undergo adequate treatment recommended by his doctors. According to his lawyer Karen Batikian, the SIS gave such permission late on Thursday.

An SIS spokeswoman, Marina Ohanjanian, said on Friday the decision was recommended by a team of doctors chosen by the Armenian Ministry of Health. She said they confirmed that the suspect needs the kind of surgery which is not performed in Armenian hospitals.

Ohanjanian also told RFE/RL’s Armenian service that Mayrapetian was allowed to leave the country after two prominent individuals guaranteed in writing that he will come back after he recuperates from the life-threatening disease. Each of them posted bail worth 15 million drams ($31,000), said the official.

In Batikian’s words, those individuals are Ruben Fanarjian, a senior professor at the Armenian State Medical University, and Rev. Vahram Melikian, the chief spokesman for the Armenian Apostolic Church. The lawyer insisted that his client will return to Armenia once his treatment in a German clinic is complete.

Investigators have still not publicized details of the accusations leveled against the tycoon who had greatly benefited from close ties with Armenia’s former governments.

Mayrapetian, 59, one of the country’s leading real estate developers who also owns a national TV channel and a car dealership. Some media outlets for years linked former President Robert Kocharian’s elder son Sedrak to the Toyota dealership.

Kocharian is currently held in pretrial detention, having been charged in connection with the deadly breakup of post-election opposition protests in March 2008. He denies the accusations as politically motivated.

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