A Yerevan court has rejected a motion filed by former Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan’s defense attorneys to have the prosecutor in the case removed.

Yerevan Court of General Jurisdiction Judge Vahe Misakyan issued his ruling minutes earlier.

Sargsyan’s lawyers, yesterday in court, claimed that Prosecutor Arsen Martirosyan had conducted a faulty preliminary investigation and should thus withdraw.

Prosecutor Martirosyan described the recusal motion baseless and said he would not step down. He called the claims that the preliminary investigation was faulty as “abstract”.

The trial of Sargsyan and four others, charged with embezzlement of state funds in a 2013 diesel fuel assistance program, got underway yesterday in Yerevan.

The four other defendants are former Minister of Agriculture Sergo Karapetyan; Flash gasoline company owner Barsegh Beglaryan; former Deputy Minister of Agriculture Samvel Galstyan; and former Chief of Crop Management Department Gevorg Harutyunyan.

Photo: Judge Vahe Misakyan