I’m not the director of Izmirlian Medical Center by my will since I personally asked our founder to temporarily dismiss me from the position of director so that there wouldn’t be a subject of speculation and so that I couldn’t have an influence. This is what member of the opposition ‘Armenia’ bloc, doctor Armen Charchyan told reporters after exiting Vardashen Penitentiary Institution.

“Today I have two options — either I return as Director of Izmirlian Medical Center or I accept the mandate of the National Assembly from the ‘Armenia’ bloc and continue my work in the National Assembly,” he said.

When Aram Vardevanyan, one of his attorneys, said he has already declared that Mr. Charchyan will take the mandate, the doctor said the following: “If the attorney has already declared this, I fully believe him.”

As reported earlier, today the court changed the motion for arrest applied against Armen Charchyan and released him on bail for AMD 15,000,000.

Armen Charchyan has been charged under Article 154.2 of the Criminal Code—that is, giving bribes to voters, taking bribes, violating the ban on charity during elections, or obstructing the exercise of a voter's free will.

A recording was disseminated on the Internet, according to which Armen Charchyan was urging his employees at Izmirlian Medical Center to go and vote in the snap parliamentary elections on June 20. But according to his legal defense team, the edited version of that recording was submitted to the court, whereas in the full version, Charchyan had not threatened or put pressure on his employees.