Echmiadzin ex-mayor`s case to be sent to court

ArmInfo.The preliminary investigation into the criminal case against Diana Gasparyan, former head of the Vagharshap (Echmiadzin) community, has been declared complete. The cases of Diana Gasparyan, her husband, Aramayis Mirzoyan, her father-in-law, Ashot Mirzoyan, and Araks Community  Council member, Shahen Shahinan, will be referred to court in the coming days, Hetq reports.

Diana Gasparyan is accused of money laundering and abuse of office.  The criminal case stems from a December 5, 2023, Hetq report that  Diana Gasparyan's husband's family had started a private home  construction business in Echmiadzin. To this end, with the help of  partners, they acquired a community plot of land and, without waiting  for permits, carried out excavation and concrete work. Thus, Nare  Plus LLC was issued 20 permits for the construction of residential  buildings. The total land area is approximately 1.2 hectares, divided  into 59 individual plots. The sole owner of Nare Plus LLC is the  father-in-law of community head Diana Gasparyan, the mother of  council member Aramayis Mirzoyan. The company was established on July  17, 2023 (the sole owner and director of Nare Plus LLC was Ruzanna  Asatryan).

At an extraordinary meeting of the Vagharshapat Community Council on  June 24, 2022, a decision was made to auction off the 0.9-hectare  land plot located at 971/8 Teryan Street, a community property, for  public construction purposes.

The starting price for each square meter of land was set at 200% of  the cadastral value of the land, for a total of 51 million 975  thousand drams (1 square meter = 5,775 drams). The sale was conducted  by the municipality's auction committee.

Nineteen council members voted in favor of the decision, including  community head Diana Gasparyan and Aramayis Mirzoyan (they married in  2023).

The only bidder at the auction was Shahen Shahinyan, a member of the  Council of Elders of the Araks community in the Armavir region. He  offered a starting price of 51,975,000 drams and was declared the  winner. The head of the community also confirmed this in a written  response.

After acquiring the land and registering his ownership with the  Cadastre Committee, Shahen Shahinyan applied to the Vagharshapat  Municipality for the direct sale of the adjacent 0.1908-hectare  community- owned land plot.

On December 13, 2022, Diana Gasparyan decided to directly sell the  approximately 0.2-hectare plot to Shahen Shahinyan, this time at a  cadastral value of 5,509,350 drams (2,887.5 drams per square meter).  This means that one square meter was sold for half the price of the  land plot sold at auction several months earlier. The justification  is that a plot of land cannot be alienated as a separate property  unit," the publication writes.

It is noted that Shahen Shahinyan was elected as a member of the  council of elders of the enlarged Araks community in the Armavir  region on December 5, 2021, on the proportional list of the Civil  Contract party.

He is not a random person. Shahinyan works for Diana Gasparyan's  father-in-law, Ashot Mirzoyan. In his 2021 declaration, Shahen  Shahinyan did not report any assets. This means he had neither cash  nor money in bank accounts. His only income was 218,000 drams  received from Ashot Mirzoyan's private enterprise and 200,000 drams  in kind as remuneration for his labor.

According to his 2022 property declaration, Shahinyan acquired two  plots of land: one purchased at auction from the Echmiadzin  Municipality for 51,975,000 drams, the other from a citizen for 6  million drams. The declaration makes no mention of the land acquired  through direct sale from the Echmiadzin Municipality.

Shahinyan provided Ashot Mirzoyan with a 55 million drams loan in  2022. Again, he failed to declare any funds. His income for the year  amounted to 9,415,000 drams, of which 6 million drams were from  operating a greenhouse, and 3,415,000 drams was salary received from  Ashot Mirzoyan, Hetq emphasizes.

The publication is also awaiting a response from the Anti-Corruption  Committee.