A Belgian court has rejected an appeal filed by Antranik Martirosyan, who is linked to Armenia’s premier league West Armenia football club, after sentencing him to three years imprisonment this June for his participation in a global tennis match-fixing syndicate.

Martirosyan was the right-hand man of Belgian-Armenian Grigor Sargsyan, who headed the syndicate that bribed dozens of professional tennis players across five continents and placed bets on bookmaking websites. Sargsyan was sentenced to five years.

(Belgian-Armenian Gets Five Years for Global Tennis Match-Fixing; Syndicate’s No. 2 Has Ties to Armenia’s Football League)

According to the court case, Andranik Martirosyan was the "financial manager" of the criminal group and helped Sargsyan manage the distribution of bribes.

The prosecution proved that in total Martirosyan received 8.3 million euros and $642,000 from the illegal activities of the syndicate.  The court also ordered that the above money be seized from Martirosyan.

West Armenia was founded by Andranik Martirosyan’s cousin Vahe Martirosyan, and Andranik’s father is the club’s director.

The court dismissed Andranik Martorosyan’s appeal given that he was sentenced “in absentia” and never provided a valid reason for his failure to appear in court during the trial.

Martirosyan participated in the operations of Sargsyan's criminal group remotely from Armenia.

Andranik Martirosyan is actively involved in the management of West Armenia.

On June 28, 2022, on behalf of West Armenia, Martirosyan attended the 22nd regular meeting of the Football Federation of Armenia (FFA) as a member of the FFA and participated in decision-making by voting.

Martirosyan often attends the club’s games. In June of this year, he travelled to Tanzania and signed a cooperation agreement with the local Simba football club on behalf of West Armenia.

Photo: Andranik Martirosyan in Tanzania signing cooperation contract with Simba football team