Armenia’s Anti-Corruption Committee (ACC) said Sarkisian had received in February-April 2008 an almost $3 million bribe in exchange for not impeding the sale of an unnamed private company. The law-enforcement agency did not name that company or give other details. It said it has already completed a criminal investigation into the alleged bribery and sent the case to court.
Sarkisian’s lawyer, Amram Makinian, dismissed the “baseless” case which he said was opened shortly after his client was removed from power in 2018.
“They are sending this nonsense to court after more than seven years,” he told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
Tigran Abrahamian, a lawmaker representing the opposition Pativ Unem bloc led by Sarkisian, linked the corruption charges to Armenia’s next general elections due in June 2026. He claimed that the authorities keep trying to discredit the ex-president with false accusations.
The charges are understood to stem from allegations made by a businesswoman, Silva Hambardzumian, following the 2018 regime change. She claimed to have also paid a similar bribe to Robert Kocharian, another ex-president and opposition leader. A resulting trial of Kocharian ended without a verdict in 2023 after he agreed to plead the statute of limitations despite strongly denying the bribery charges.
Makinian made clear that Sarkisian will not invoke the statute of limitations and will fight for his acquittal instead.
Sarkisian, who ruled the country from 2008-2018, first went on trial in 2020 for allegedly helping a longtime friend and businessman win a public procurement contract in 2013. He and several other defendants were cleared of any wrongdoing in 2024. The judge who handed down that ruling was removed from the bench last October, ostensibly because of his handling of another trial. An appeals court overturned the acquittal last month.
Prosecutors revealed a second criminal case against Sarkisian in March this year just a couple of days after Pashinian lashed out at both ex-presidents in a speech and a series of social media posts. The charges stem from the privatization of state-owned land in Yerevan in 2005. Sarkisian, who served as defense minister at the time, denies helping to privatize the land at cutdown prices. His second trial began earlier this month.