Armenia’s Prosecutor General’s Office has announced that a public criminal prosecution was launched against former President Serzh Sargsyan on November 5, 2025, under charges of accepting an exceptionally large bribe.
The case is being pursued under Article 435, Part 3, Clause 3 of Armenia’s current Criminal Code, corresponding to the former Article 311, Part 4, Clause 2, from the 2003 edition of the code, according to Factor.am .
The investigation into this high-profile corruption case began in 2019 and remains ongoing.
Before the charges were officially filed, Sargsyan’s lawyer Amram Makinyan stated that after the Anti-Corruption Court denied imposing a travel ban on the former president, he was summoned to the Anti-Corruption Committee for questioning under the same long-standing case.
Earlier, Republican Party Vice President Armen Ashotyan had said that Sargsyan was once again barred from leaving Armenia due to this 2019 criminal case.
Sargsyan’s name is mentioned in multiple ongoing criminal proceedings, grouped into two main cases. One concerns the so-called “diesel case,” now merged with another investigation involving Sedrak Kocharyan (son of ex-president Robert Kocharyan) and businessman Mikhail Baghdasarov. The second involves alleged bribes from Silva Hambardzumyan and the sale of land along Isakov Avenue.
