YEREVAN. – The criminal proceedings against former Yerevan mayor Yervand Zakharyan and Arsen Lalayants, head of the Department of Architecture and Urban Development at Yerevan Municipality, has been suspended. The Special Investigation Service (SIS) of Armenia has reported this in response to a request by Armenian News-NEWS.am.

In particular, it is noted that during the investigation of this criminal case it was established that Zakharyan and Lalayants had committed the criminal acts envisaged by the Criminal Code. That is to say, as a result of the actions of these officials, a plot of land not subject to being sold was sold to a private company.

The aforementioned persons appealed to the investigating body and stated that they did not object to the termination of their prosecution due to the expiry of the statute of limitations, so the SIS investigator decided to terminate the criminal proceedings against them based on the said grounds.

But the SIS informed that the criminal investigation is still in progress to determine the legality of allocating land for construction of houses in the areas adjacent to Victory Park, and some other circumstances.

The criminal case on the alienation of 10,000 square meters of land nearby Victory Park by the decision of then mayor Yervand Zakharyan was launched in September 2019. At end of the same month, Zakharyan and Lalayants were charged with abuse of official power which led to grave consequences.