Yerevan Man Missing for Nearly Two Weeks Feared Murdered

A Union of Informed Citizens NGO (UIC) expert Karen Vardanyan has been missing for nearly two weeks, and UIC program coordinator Daniel Ioannisyan fears that his coworker may have become a victim of a “serious crime.” “Unfortunately, I can't rule out that he's been killed,” Ioannisyan told Epress.am Tuesday. He added that there have been some developments in the case but he could not speak of them just yet so as not to harm the investigation.

Ioannisyan wrote on his Facebook page Monday that Vardanyan had not been seen once after telling people that he was leaving for Dubai on March 17 to sign some agreements. However, “there was no Yerevan-Dubai flight that day,” Ioannisyan stated, alleging that Vardanyan “has become a victim of fraud and trafficking.'

“Karen is easily deceived; he is quick to trust people. In September, he registered his apartment to a neighbour’s name to prevent a 300 thousand [Judicial Acts Compulsory Enforcement] fine from affecting the apartment. Several days after Karen’s disappearance, this neighbour changed the locks and began to take his belongings out of the house. He has also been spreading false rumours about Karen, claiming that [Vardanyan] loved him so much that he gifted the apartment to him,” Ioannisyan wrote, insisting that his coworker did not have any debts that could have made him flee the country.