Yerem Sargsyan, the lawyer of the former mayor of Meghri, MP Mkhitar Zakaryan, said on his Facebook page that the motion to release Mkhitar Zakaryan from custody was rejected.

He noted that when detaining Mkhitar Zakaryan, the judge said that at the initial stage of the investigation, when there is a need to carry out large-scale investigative actions, he should be detained in order to exclude the possibility of exerting illegal influence on the trial participants.

Yerem Sargsyan submitted a motion stating that the preliminary investigation is over, that there is no need to carry out an investigative action, therefore, when the accused is released, he cannot hinder the investigation of the case.

In response to the motion submitted by the Defender, the court registered that on 09.08.2021; the end of the preliminary investigation of the criminal case No. 45100721 was announced. The materials of the case were submitted by the investigator to the accused Mkhitar Zakaryan and his lawyer for acquaintance, but it yet shall be reveled whether they have motions to carry out additional investigative actions or to make new court decisions. That is, until the accused and his lawyer get acquainted with the materials of the criminal case, it is impossible to prove that no motions for additional investigative actions or new court decisions will be filed, and if they are filed, they will not be satisfied. In other words, the court records that at this stage it is not possible to state unequivocally,

Defender Mkhitar Zakaryan mentioned in his post. “That is, the judge says that can file a motion or npt file a motion and theinvestigator may or may not meet the motion.”

Notably,  Mkhitar Zakaryan was charged with abuse of official powers, obstruction of obtaining or maintaining the status of an official, failure to disclose information about his citizenship of another state to the competent body or conceal such information.

Mkhitar Zakaryan has been under arrest since 13 July.