FORMER ARMENIAN PM ARRESTED ON GRAFT CHARGES

YEREVAN: Armenia today arrested former prime minister Hovik Abrahamyan on money laundering charges, officials said, the latest twist in reformist leader Nikol Pashinyan’s sweeping anti-graft drive.

Pashinyan, who came to power after a 2018 peaceful revolution that ousted Armenia’s entrenched post-Soviet elites, has vowed to eradicate rampant corruption in the landlocked Caucasus nation.

Today, Armenia’s anti-corruption committee announced Abrahamyan’s arrest on charges of “multiple counts of money laundering, abuse of official authority, and illegal involvement in unauthorised business activities”.

Commonly known by his nickname Muk – Armenian for “mouse” – Abrahamyan served as Armenia’s prime minister from 2014 to 2016 and as parliament speaker from 2008 to 2011.

His case is the latest in a series of prosecutions targeting former officials under Pashinyan’s government, including ex-presidents Serzh Sarkisian and Robert Kocharyan.

Analysts say the scale of corruption exposed since Pashinyan’s rise to power has dealt a major blow to the formerly ruling Republican Party, now Armenia’s main opposition force.

In diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks, Joseph Pennington, a former deputy chief of mission at the US embassy in Yerevan, described Abrahamyan as “an unsophisticated thug” whose instincts were “not progressive”.

Abrahamyan, 67, has reportedly owned more than two dozen businesses, including sand mines, grape fields, gas stations, casinos and a multimillion-dollar summer home in Crimea.

2025-06-13T14:42:04Z