Armenian court orders 2-month house arrest for former deputy economy minister

YEREVAN, February 2. /ARKA/. Armenia’s Anti-Corruption Court granted the investigator's petition for house arrest as a preventive measure for former Deputy Minister of Economy Ani Ispiryan for 2 months.

Ispiryan, 32, was brought in for questioning from her office on the morning of January 31, the day after she was fired by Prime Minister Pashinyan.

According to the Investigative Committee's press service, six officials of the Economy Ministry created conditions for the illegal disqualification of a private entity from participating in a tender for the establishment of a bank for state investment projects so that it would be won by another bidder who offered 392 million drams (about $1 million), three times the price offered by the disqualified competitor.

The Investigative Committee also stated that the ministry official detained in another criminal case unreasonably facilitated the transfer of 238 million drams to the accounts of farmers participating in the creation of intensive orchards, who did not provide relevant documents and misappropriated the funds. According to the IC, the detained official was in close relations with these persons. -0-