Gasparian resigned in May after six and a half years in office. The 37-year-old mayor gave personal reasons for the resignation which followed repeated media claims that she is using her position to enrich herself and her family through dubious redevelopment projects and other business deals.
Armenia’s Anti-Corruption Committee (ACC) launched a criminal investigation into one of those projects last year. The ACC reportedly indicted Gasparian in July this year. It declined to comment on the indictment before a snap election held last month in the local community just west of Yerevan.
The law-enforcement body detailed the accusations of abuse of power and money laundering levelled against Gasparian in a statement that announced the completion of the probe. It claimed that in 2022 and 2023 she illegally helped a company formally owned by her mother-in-law buy municipal land at a fraction of its market value estimated by investigators at 243 million drams ($635,000). The company used the land for commercial housing construction.
Gasparian, who is not held in pre-trial detention, will face between 6 and 12 years in prison if found guilty. It is still not clear whether she will plead guilty to the accusations.
The ACC has also charged Gasparian’s husband Aramayis Mirzoyan and his parents with involvement in the alleged corruption. The ex-mayor’s mother-in-law, Ruzanna Asatrian, refused to talk to RFE/RL’s Armenian Service when she was contacted by phone on Wednesday. The three other suspects did not answer phone calls at all.
Vagharshapat, which is also known as Echmiadzin, was rocked in March this year by the fatal shooting of a 36-year-old man at a local gas station owned by Gasparian’s father-in-law. Another local resident who investigators believe committed the murder is reportedly a friend of Mirzoyan. Two employees of the gas station were charged in July with an attempted cover-up of the crime.
Following Gasparian’s resignation, the Armenian government decided to merge the historic town with 16 nearby villages. The politically motivated merger proved decisive for the ruling Civil Contract party’s narrow victory in the local election held in the enlarged community on November 16. Gasparian is understood to remain a member of the party led by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian.