Yerevan’s Court of General Jurisdiction today rejected a motion filed by former Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan’s lawyers to lift a freeze placed on their client’s assets.

An Armenian court issued the freeze when Sargsyan was charged, in December 2019, with masterminding the embezzlement of 489 million drams (just over $1 million) in 2013 from a state-sponsored diesel fuel assistance program, filed a court motion today to have a freeze placed on their client’s property to be lifted.

Of the four other defendants in the case, Former Minister of Agriculture Sergo Karapetyan and former Deputy Minister of Agriculture Samvel Galstyan have since died from Covid-19.