Armenia’s National Security Service (NSS) has launched a criminal case of abuse of power against former Syunik Governor Surik Khachatryan.

The NSS, in a statement released today, says it has uncovered evidence that in 2016, then Syunik Governor Khachatryan, finding out that a group of people on a bad footing with him wanted to build a hotel, ordered local authorities to sell a piece of land, adjacent to the hotel site and providing access to it, to one of his friends.

The NSS says this was a blatant attempt to artificially hinder the project by interfering in local government matters.

Khachatryan, a controversial figure and member of the Republican Party of Armenia who resigned as Syunik governor in 2013 because of public pressure resulting from a shooting incident near his Goris home , was reappointed governor in September 2014 by then Armenian Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan.