Hetq — The Anti-Corruption Court, presided over by Judge Levon Petrosyan, decided on July 24 to lift the arrest of David Ghazinyan, a deputy elected from the "Strong Armenia" alliance, after his lawyers argued in court that Ghazinyan had already received his parliamentary mandate on July 21, thus enjoying immunity, and that only the National Assembly can deprive him of this status. The prosecutor objected, proposing to replace the arrest with a 1 billion dram bail, but the court rejected that motion. David Ghazinyan was released immediately from the courtroom.
It is worth recalling that on June 17, the Central Electoral Commission had granted the prosecutor's office's motion to initiate criminal proceedings against Ghazinyan and arrest him, after which the court had placed him under arrest for two months. The charge is related to a recording published by the Anti-Corruption Committee, which discusses an alleged electoral bribe of 1.4 million drams.
