YEREVAN, January 17. /ARKA/. Ex- member of the Armenian Parliament Tigran Ulikhanyan was appointed Saturday as head of the State Oversight Service. The decision was published on the website of the Prime Minister.
By another decision, Ulikhanyan was relieved of his post as deputy head of the service. He was appointed as deputy head of the State Oversight Service on October 6, 2020, and on October 12 he was promoted as acting head of Armenia’s anti-graft agency. Ulikhanyan replaced David Sanasaryan, whose powers were suspended earlier.
On October 28, 2020, a first instance court in Yerevan turned down Sanasaryan’s lawyers petition to terminate the corruption case against their client and upheld the decision to suspend his powers.
Sanasaryan’s lawyers appealed to the Prosecutor General’s Office with a petition to terminate the criminal prosecution against him. Earlier, the National Security Service rejected a similar petition by Sanitarian’s lawyers.
Sanasaryan was suspended as head of the State Oversight Service (SOS) after being indicted in 2019 April in a criminal investigation into alleged corrupt practices within the anti-corruption government agency. He was charged under part 1 of article 308 (abuse of official powers) of the Armenian Criminal Code.
Sanasaryan, a former opposition and civic activist was actively involved in the 2018 velvet revolution.