Ex-Armenian judicial head sentenced to prison over abuse of power

Ruben Vardazaryan, the former chairman of Armenia’s Supreme Judicial Council (SJC), has been sentenced to one and a half years in prison, according to Armenian media reports cited by Caliber.Az.

The verdict was delivered by Armenia’s Anti-Corruption Court on August 8.

In addition to the prison term, the court has barred Vardazaryan from holding certain positions within state and local government bodies for a period of two years.

Until the sentence officially comes into force, the court has decided to leave his current preventive measure— a written undertaking not to leave the country — unchanged.

Vardazaryan faced charges of abusing his official powers to interfere with the judicial process. According to the indictment, the incident in question occurred in 2019 while he was serving as head of the Supreme Judicial Council.

He was accused of obstructing the work of Judge Andranik Simonyan, who was presiding over cases at the Court of General Jurisdiction in Armenia's Lori region.

By Tamilla Hasanova