An Armenian court on Tuesday ordered Prosperous Armenia party leader Gagik Tsarukyan held in pre-trial detention for two months, a day after his arrest on charges of organizing large-scale fraud and money laundering. Separately, the Yerevan Zoo confirmed that one of the lions seized from his residence during the raid died after failing to recover from sedation.
The Court of General Jurisdiction of the Avan and Nor Nork administrative districts, presided over by Judge Garik Abelyan, granted prosecutors’ request to detain Tsarukyan for two months. The person detained alongside him on July 6 was also remanded in custody on Tuesday, and a third suspect, previously the subject of a detention order, has since been located and detained, placing all three in custody.
Tsarukyan rejected the case, calling the accusation “false, fabricated, a sham.” His lawyer, Yerem Sargsyan, argued that Tsarukyan should have been recognized as a victim in the matter rather than turned into an accused.
The Lioness’s Death
The Yerevan Zoo said a female lion transferred from Tsarukyan’s residence the previous day did not recover from sedation, attributing the death to her advanced age and underlying illnesses. According to the zoo, a post-mortem examination found damage to the animal’s spleen, liver, lungs, and heart, along with signs of cholecystitis, obesity, and free fluid in the abdominal cavity, all consistent with age-related changes. The Investigative Committee said it will examine the circumstances of the death.
The lioness was one of three lions and a tiger seized from Tsarukyan’s residence as material evidence in a separate illegal-hunting case, sedated, and transferred to the zoo. Authorities also took 190 taxidermied animals and birds in that case.
Background
The detention caps an operation that began at dawn on July 6, when law enforcement, jointly staffed by the National Security Service, the State Revenue Committee, and the Interior Ministry police, searched more than 70 locations tied to Tsarukyan, including his hilltop mansion north of Yerevan and companies across his family’s Multi Group concern. The searches sealed the offices of major firms, among them Armenia’s largest cement plant, in what his party said left several thousand employees unable to work.
The Investigative Committee alleges that between 2022 and 2024, a group organized by Tsarukyan carried out large-scale fraud and money laundering under the guise of an Iran-Armenia freight link, misappropriating property worth roughly $21.07 million. The case is one of several the government has pursued against him since the June 7 parliamentary election, in which his Prosperous Armenia narrowly missed the threshold to enter parliament. During the campaign, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan vowed to strip his rivals of their property and have them jailed, naming Tsarukyan alongside Strong Armenia leader Samvel Karapetyan and former President Robert Kocharyan. His party has called the case politically motivated.
Under Armenia’s Criminal Procedure Code, a person charged with a criminal offense is presumed innocent until proven guilty by a final court verdict.
