The detention of former Chairman of Armenia’s State Revenue Committee (SRC), Vardan Harutyunyan, has been extended for another month, his attorney Armen Andrikyan announced. The defense plans to challenge the decision in the Court of Appeals and also file a complaint with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), Pastinfo.am reports.
Harutyunyan was arrested on August 8. According to his lawyer, the justification for the detention extension relied on a case that had already been closed in 2018. That decision was reversed only after Harutyunyan was already in custody.
“In 2018, an investigation was conducted which concluded that Vardan Harutyunyan had no ties to Norfolk Consulting—he didn’t found it, lead it, or manage it,” Andrikyan said, stressing that the same closed case has now been revived without new factual grounds.
The defense argues that the prosecution’s reasoning fails to provide sufficient evidence or prove any real risk of obstruction. Under these circumstances, they say, continued detention is legally unjustified.
Andrikyan emphasized that even if the case is later dropped again, irreversible harm has already been done. Harutyunyan’s rights were violated and his freedom unjustly taken without sufficient legal basis. He did not rule out political motives in the case but declined to comment further on that aspect.
He also pointed out that no face-to-face interrogations have taken place in the case, meaning that any potential witness claims against Harutyunyan remain untested.
Harutyunyan is charged with illegal involvement in business activity, anti-competitive conduct, and money laundering. The charges center on the Norfolk Consulting firm, which a 2018 preliminary investigation found he had no connection to. Despite this, authorities reopened the case seven years later.
Three others are also charged in connection with the same case, including accusations of group money laundering and facilitating anti-competitive practices.
