Former Armenian President Sargsyan investigated for abuse of power

Armenian authorities have launched an investigation into former President Serzh Sargsyan on suspicion of abuse of power. The case concerns the sale of the historical landmark the Black Fortress in Armenia’s second-largest city of Gyumri while Sargsyan was serving as defence minister in the early 2000s.

If charged and convicted, Sargsyan could face up to eight years in prison.

According to Armenia’s Investigative Committee, it has obtained prima facie evidence that in May 2005, Sargsyan authorised the direct sale of the Black Fortress — a 626.45-square-metre immovable monument of history and culture of national significance — together with a 0.7-hectare land plot, to a private individual for ֏23 million (around $63,000).

Investigators allege the transaction was carried out without a government decision authorising the sale. As a result, the state lost ownership of the nationally significant cultural monument, which was subsequently omitted from a 2007 government list of state-owned historical and cultural monuments protected from privatisation.

According to the committee, the fortress and the adjacent land were later sold to the family of former Gyumri Mayor Samvel Balasanyan.

It is not the first criminal case which Sargsyan could face since being ousted from power during the 2018 Velvet Revolution.

Sargsyan served as Armenia’s president from 2008 to 2018 before briefly becoming prime minister. His rule was marked by persistent allegations of corruption, which became one of the main drivers of the 2018 Velvet Revolution that brought his tenure to an end.

Most recently, in July 2025, he was charged with bribery and illegal entrepreneurship in connection with activities allegedly carried out between 2006 and 2015 while serving as defence minister, prime minister, and president.

A few months earlier, prosecutors accused him of using his official position to facilitate the sale of all shares in an unnamed company to a foreign firm registered in Armenia. The alleged bribes were said to have been transferred in February and April 2008 with the assistance of Sargsyan’s then-senior aide.

In March 2025, Sargsyan had also been charged in a separate case involving the alleged unlawful sale of land adjacent to Isakov Avenue and the Yerablur Military Pantheon in Yerevan at prices below market value. The charges reportedly include 18 counts of large-scale theft, two counts of abuse of power, three counts of aiding money laundering, and money laundering. He was also banned from leaving the country.

In April 2025, Armenia’s Anti-Corruption Court of Appeals overturned Sargsyan’s 2024 acquittal in a separate embezzlement case of more than ֏490 million ($1.2 million) in state funds through a 2013 agricultural assistance programme intended to provide subsidised fuel to farmers and ordered a retrial.